Baker Street: History, Mystery and More Quiz

Answer: Whether the museum could legitimately use the address 221B

When Arthur Conan Doyle introduced Sherlock Holmes's home at 221B Baker Street in 'A Study in Scarlet' in 1887, the address was entirely fictional. The real Baker Street's numbers only reached into the 100s. The street was later renumbered, and 221 eventually became associated with Abbey National Building Society's building. When the Sherlock Holmes Museum opened in 1990, it was granted the right to display the 221B address by special permission of the City of Westminster, despite sitting physically between numbers 237 and 241.

A dispute arose over who had the right to use the address and which institution should receive the considerable volume of mail addressed to Holmes - the museum, or Abbey National, which had been handling it since the 1930s. The wrangle lasted fifteen years and was not resolved until Abbey National vacated its premises in 2005, after which the Royal Mail delivered all 221B correspondence to the museum.

Answer: Madame Tussauds

Marie Tussaud learned wax modelling as a child from a French physician named Philippe Curtius. She settled in Baker Street from 1831 and opened her first permanent museum there in 1835. One of its main draws was the Chamber of Horrors, which displayed victims of the French Revolution, many as death masks she had made shortly after their executions. The oldest figure on display today is Madame du Barry, known as the 'Sleeping Beauty,' crafted by Marie herself.

In 1883, the restricted space of the original Baker Street site prompted Tussaud's grandson Joseph Randall to commission a new building at its current location on Marylebone Road. It opened on 14 July 1884. In 2026, when this quiz was written, the museum still draws huge crowds, with over 150 wax figures across eight themed zones, including a Royal Family section, Marvel Hall of Heroes, Star Wars experience, and a Jumanji 4D adventure.

Answer: William Pitt the Younger

Baker Street has been home to some rather distinguished residents. William Pitt the Younger, who served twice as Britain's Prime Minister, lived at 120 Baker Street from 1803 to 1804. The building dates from the late 18th century and still stands as part of the historic development of the street. It carries a blue plaque commemorating his residence there.

The final years of his life were spent juggling the demands of government. He had become Prime Minister at the age of 24 and arrived at Baker Street ground down by affairs of state, described by contemporaries as 'worn out by the toils, anxieties and vexations that he encountered'.

Answer: Special Operations Executive

During the Second World War, Baker Street became the unlikely home of Britain's secret warfare organisation, the Special Operations Executive (SOE). The SOE was formed in July 1940 to conduct espionage, sabotage and reconnaissance in occupied Europe. Churchill's instruction was to 'set Europe ablaze' by supporting local resistance movements in enemy-held territories.

Its headquarters moved to 64 Baker Street in October 1940, and the organisation eventually occupied much of the western side of the street. Because of its secretive activities and its address, the SOE became known informally as the 'Baker Street Irregulars', borrowing the name of Sherlock Holmes's fictional informants.

Answer: Answering correspondence addressed to Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes may have been fictional, but his postbag became surprisingly real. Almost from the day Abbey National opened its building at 219-229 Baker Street, it began receiving large quantities of letters from around the world addressed to Sherlock Holmes. The volume became sufficient for the bank's public relations department to employ a permanent 'secretary to Sherlock Holmes' to deal with the correspondence, who typically advised that Holmes had retired to keep bees in Sussex.

The role lasted several decades before the correspondence eventually transferred to the Sherlock Holmes Museum.

Answer: Marks & Spencer

For almost half a century, Baker Street was also the corporate home of one of Britain's best-known retailers. Marks & Spencer established its headquarters at Michael House, 55 Baker Street, in 1957, after outgrowing its previous headquarters.

It had formerly been the site of the Baker Street Bazaar, which was destroyed by fire in 1940. The building's 'Michael House' name reflected the company's St Michael brand. In 2004 M&S relocated to a new building at Waterside House in the Paddington Basin.

Answer: Apple Boutique

During the swinging sixties, Beatles fans had another reason to visit Baker Street when Apple Boutique opened at 94 Baker Street on 7 December 1967. The shop sold clothing and accessories and was one of the Beatles' early Apple Corps ventures. Its psychedelic exterior mural, created by the design collective The Fool, became almost as famous as the shop itself, although Westminster City Council eventually ordered the mural to be painted over.

When the Beatles decided to close it in July 1968, after only eight months, they announced they would give the stock away. Members of the public queued through the night, with some arriving with wheelbarrows.

Answer: H. G. Wells and Arnold Bennett

Chiltern Court was built between 1927 and 1929 above Baker Street tube station by the Metropolitan Railway. It was originally intended as a hotel before being redesigned as a residential block. It attracted a fascinating collection of residents. H. G. Wells lived there from 1930 to 1936, holding a weekly literary salon at his apartment where writers and other members of London society gathered.

Arnold Bennett also lived at Chiltern Court, having bought a flat there in 1930. He died in the building the following year.

Answer: Baker Street's numbering did not yet reach 221

When Arthur Conan Doyle published 'A Study in Scarlet' in 1887, he picked a number he presumably felt was safely fictional. His original manuscript referred to Holmes's home as being on 'Upper Baker Street'. Baker Street house numbers at that time only extended into the 100s, making 221B a purely invented address.

It was only in 1921 that Upper Baker Street was renamed and renumbered as part of Baker Street, which eventually pushed the highest house numbers to around 250. This produced the curious situation in which a fictional address acquired a genuine location.

Answer: A bronze statue of Sherlock Holmes

A bronze Sherlock Holmes now stands close to the place most famously associated with him. The three-metre bronze statue, created by sculptor John Doubleday, was unveiled outside Baker Street Underground station on 23 September 1999. It was funded by Abbey National, whose headquarters occupied the building associated with the famous 221B address.

The statue was placed on Marylebone Road rather than directly on Baker Street because there was no suitable site available on the street itself. The statue depicts Holmes in the deerstalker and Inverness cape.