Next in our special series of Literary Footprints 2019 posts is from Jen Pedler giving us a preview of her walk Sherlock Holmes – the Return, which features as part of this year’s Footprints of London Literary Festival.

It follows Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson as they track down a murderer through the darkened mews and back streets of Marylebone. Here she describes the inspiration behind the walk, full booking details are on Jen’s walks page.

In ‘The Adventure of the Empty House’ Watson describes following Holmes as “he passed rapidly, and with an assured step, through a network of mews and stables the very existence of which I had never known.”

Their starting point was Cavendish Square and Doyle gives us no more clues to their route until they emerged at last into a small road, lined with old, gloomy houses, which led us into Manchester Street, and so to Blandford Street.

Joining these two points up was the challenge I set myself when planning this walk. Did such a mysterious network ever exist?  It may well not have done as Doyle, by his own admission, relied on working things out from a map rather than walking the streets. But, more importantly, could it be recreated today?

Marylebone has numerous mews streets but many of them, although they seem promising at the outset, lead only to a dead end and study of a Victorian street map shows that this was also the case back then. Others didn’t lead in a useful direction or, even when they seemed to, meandered back to a street I had already walked.

But eventually I managed to come up with what seemed like a reasonable approximation of the route Holmes and Watson could have taken. We even find a plaque to remind us that these now desirable residences were once stables.

Of course, Watson had no idea where they were headed but anyone who’s read the story will know that their ultimate destination was Baker Street (and those who come on the walk will also know the finish point so I don’t think a spoiler alert is necessary here.)

But it seems that even when you know where you are going you can still feel lost as there has always come a moment when someone on the walk  has commented “I feel completely disorientated” or “I have no idea where we are.” That, I point out, is exactly how Watson would have felt…

Just off Baker Street we find a Sherlock Mews, renamed in the 1930s in honour of the famous detective. Previously, as the faded, painted street name below the modern sign shows, it was named York Mews South and may have been the location of the empty house that gives the story its title.

Why not come along and lose yourself after dark in the Marylebone back streets as we follow The Notable Adventure of the Empty House?

Follow the link for the full list of our Literary Footprints 2019 walks and if you’re feeling particularly curious (and energetic!) then why not take advantage of our great value season ticket which for only £49 allows you one free place on every Literary Footprints walk throughout October!