Solve the Mystery of Sherlock Holmes With These Facts

Sherlock Holmes Was Inspired by a Real Person

Sherlock Holmes may be a fictional character, but he wasn’t solely conjured from Doyle’s imagination. The author modeled his detective’s methods and mannerisms on those of Dr. Joseph Bell, who was his professor at the University of Edinburgh. Bell was a charismatic teacher who amazed his students with demonstrations in which he could determine a patient’s occupation and other personal details just by studying the patient’s appearance and behavior. 

In 1892, Doyle wrote to Bell, “It is most certainly to you that I owe Sherlock Holmes, and though in the stories I have the advantage of being able to place him in all sorts of dramatic positions I do not think that his analytical work is in the least an exaggeration of some effects which I have seen you produce in the outpatient ward.”

Sherlock’s Iconic Hat Is Never Mentioned in Doyle’s Stories

The classic image of Sherlock Holmes almost always depicts him as wearing a deerstalker cap. Holmes’ headwear is so iconic that it’s become stereotypical among the fictional detectives who succeeded him, especially those of the comical variety. (Detective Pikachu, for example, wears a deerstalker in the Pokémon video games and the associated film.) Doyle, however, never explicitly mentions the deerstalker at any point in the entire Holmes canon.

The distinctive hunting cap only became associated with Holmes through the illustrations of Sidney Paget, who drew the detective in 38 stories for The Strand Magazine between 1891 and 1908. Paget first portrayed Holmes with a  deerstalker — a hat normally associated with hunting and shooting in rural areas — in an October 1891 story called The Boscombe Valley Mystery, because the story takes place in the countryside. The image stuck, and the hat became part of Holmes’ signature look in all his future mysteries, including those with urban settings. 

221B Baker Street Didn’t Really Exist — Until It Did

According to Doyle’s stories, 221B Baker Street — one of literature’s most famous addresses — is where Holmes lived in London from 1881 to 1904. When the stories were written, however, Baker Street was a real location but Holmes’ exact residence was not, as the house numbers only went into the 100s. In the 1930s, the street was extended and the Abbey National Building Society moved into the premises occupying 219 to 229 Baker Street. The new occupant soon began receiving fan mail addressed to Holmes. Rather than simply dispose of the letters, however, Abbey National hired someone to answer the mail while posing as Holmes’ secretary or even Sherlock himself — something it continued to do until moving headquarters in the 2000s. The Sherlock Holmes Museum, which opened in 1990, is now located at 221B Baker Street.

For Sherlock Holmes, One Woman Stood Above All Others

In a world where Sherlock Holmes consistently outwits everyone around him, one character stands out as his match: Irene Adler. Appearing in the short story “A Scandal in Bohemia,” Adler is the only woman to have ever outsmarted Holmes. She’s also one of the few people to earn his genuine admiration. Out of respect, Holmes refers to her as “the woman,” and Doyle writes that “in his eyes she eclipses and predominates the whole of her sex.” Adler’s character has been expanded upon in numerous adaptations and is often portrayed as a love interest for Holmes — but in Doyle’s original story, Holmes’ admiration for her is purely intellectual.

Sherlock Holmes Holds a Guinness World Record

Sherlock Holmes holds the Guinness World Record for the most portrayed human literary character in film and TV. When the record was bestowed on Holmes in 2012, he had been portrayed 254 times in various films and TV shows. At least 75 different actors have played the super sleuth, including Christopher Lee, Charlton Heston, Peter O’Toole, Roger Moore, John Cleese, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Robert Downey Jr. Even more adaptations remain in development, proving Holmes remains as popular and mesmerizing as ever, nearly a century and a half after he solved his first mystery.