Sherlock Holmes Museum

The museum – founded in 1989 on a site approximating that described by Conan Doyle, though actually standing at number 239 – fought long and hard for the right to claim the address 221B Baker Street as its own. When you visit you are likely to be greeted by an august person wearing a bowler hat and whiskers; this, you will deduce, is Doctor Watson. And every lovingly recreated detail, every carefully sourced antique or replica, every caption on every exhibit here conspires to persuade visitors to suspend their disbelief and feel themselves travelling, not into a fictional world, but back in time to a preserved fragment of historical reality. The house bristles with murder weapons, Victoriana and waxworks depicting scenes from the stories. Upstairs in Mrs Hudson’s room there is a folder of letters addressed to Holmes by fans from all over the world and, apparently, a fair percentage of visitors do believe that the whole set up is for real.