SarahTheCoat

Fireplaces - a warning

If you set your fic in London, be aware of reality - it’s not going to be burning wood or coal. “Open fires” burning wood or coal were prohibited in the 1950s, due to the horrible “pea-souper” fogs and air pollution involved. Many homes boarded up their fireplaces (to save central heating disappearing up the chimney) or even closed them entirely, plastering over the whole of the chimney breast. 

Even wood burning stoves are rare- a very, very few of those on the market pass the strict environmental low emission requirements. And to meet emission restrictions you have to burn what is called “smokeless fuel”.

So this familiar fireplace above will most likely be a Victorian relic, which at one time used to burn coal (almost never wood). The mantelpiece is later- likely to be 1930s, but the red tiles and the fire-basket are Victorian. 

Interestingly, TAB recognised the differences: 

In addition to the different mantelpiece, notice the “fender”- the metal grill at floor level, designed to stop embers from falling out and starting a fire. Notice too the bellows hanging up next to Sherlock’s knee. That was needed to get a coal fire going. I can tell you, it isn’t easy! There was a reason why in big houses one of the first duties of every maid was to light the coal fires in the rooms. It took a lot of preparation. First you have to remove the old ash, because this restricts air flow. Then a layer of paper (newspaper was often used, scrunched into balls to allow air to circulate. Then wood- tinder that will burn easily is built in a raft shape. Only then do you add the coal lumps. 

I once had a “solid” fuel boiler and a coal fireplace out in a rural cottage in Warwickshire; it took a lot of effort to get things going!

No wonder that as soon as an alternative became available and it could also be used for lighting the rooms, gas took off as the fuel of choice. 

“Town gas” delivered by pipes into houses come to London after 1813 and was manufactured at power stations burning coal.  Once the North Sea natural gas fields opened in the 1960s, town gas was phased out and replaced by natural gas, using the same network of pipes. 

In the Great Smog of 1952 four thousand Londoners died from air pollution, which led to the Clean Air Act of 1956, outlawing the burning of coal in London. The net effect was that in the 60s and 1970s, most London fireplaces were either closed up or slowly but surely converted to gas.

Early gas heaters looked like this - 

The first room I rented had one of these that was coin-operated and I had to light it with a match! Ventilation was a problem, too- a window needed to be left open a crack to let fresh air in. 

This is what they look like now: 

A lot more aesthetically pleasing, no mess, just click a switch and it is automatically ignited and generating heat instantly. That little drawer under the brass grate is pretending to be an ash drawer, but in reality it just hides access to the gas tap. 

The brass “fire irons” on the left of the 221b version are not actually in use- those coal-like lumps are for decoration. The gas flames will make them look real, but they aren’t.

Some people in London are getting around the issue by using “smokeless fuel”- coal that has been treated to reduce emissions. The rise in popularity of wood burning stoves also present a challenge, with the London Mayor taking action in 2022 to limit the sale of any stoves that don’t meet the highest standards. “Ecodesign” wood burning stoves produce 450 times more toxic air pollution than gas central heating, according to new data published in the Chief Medical Officer’s Annual Report 2022, whereas older stoves, now banned from sale, produce 3,700 times more. Wood burners can also be the least efficient way of heating your home and any wood burning will cause pollution emissions. No wonder that the Mayor has prioritised planning regulations to limit them in London. 

Meanwhile, out in the country, in my cottage in rural Hampshire, we are not connected to the British Gas network. No matter; I can happily burn well dried wood logs in an open fireplace. 

Baker Street and its surroundings

@dmellieon​ asked for information about the area around 221b. 

For obvious reasons, a lot of Sherlock fan fic writers are interested in what Baker Street is actually like - both in ACD’s time and for the modern version. So here is a little bit of local knowledge you might find useful. 

Let’s start with a little history. Baker Street is in the Marylebone district of the City of Westminster. It stands on the Portman Estate. Back in 1553 Sir William Portman bought nearly 300 acres of land in the area; 200 years later development of the Portman estate began. 

The name does not come from any prevalence of bakers in the area. It commemorates a person called Baker, though opinion is divided as to which particular Baker. Most likely is William Baker, a Gentleman of Marylebone, who leased land from the Portman Estate, and laid out the street in 1755. But there are other Bakers who could be associated with the name, too. 

Baker Street became one of the main north-south access roads for London as it grew. There is a reason why Grenada Holmes has a soundtrack with frequent horse carriages going by. It’s also the reason why Sherlock is always able to get a cab going south.

Baker Street now forms the end section of the A41, a “trunk road” that leads from London to the northwest, through Watford and Hertfordshire. That road has many names (and different numbers in modern times); the southern end of it below Wigmore Street is known as Orchard Road. Once Baker Street reaches the southern end of St John’s Wood, it changes its name to Finchley Road. 

Nowadays, it’s a VERY busy road; heavy traffic night and day, with loads of buses, too. For many years, Baker Street was a southbound one way only three-lane road, but in 2020, a new scheme permitted a single lane of traffic to go both north and south. Baker Street (the named bit) starts when Park Road splits; the road heading due south is Baker Street; the other bit becomes Allsop Place and it goes to the east to join up with the roads around Regent’s Park. 

Let’s take a closer look at the bit of Baker Street that is north of Marylebone Road (where 221b is situated; and the Sherlock Holmes museum) is quite short; only 250 meters long. The notable pub onthis part of Baker Street is The Volunteer, where no doubt, John Watson retires for the occasional pint. 

Other pubs within a ten minute walk of Baker Street include the Allsop Arms on Gloucester Place, the Globe on Marylebone Road and the Sir John Balcombe on Balcombe Street, which is actually much more like the Baker Street we see in TV productions, both the Grenada version and the BBC, which filmed on North Gower Street. 

The buildings on the actual Baker Street are now an eclectic mix of styles. Some Victorian, some earlier, and the 1920s HQ of what was the Abbey National Bank, now sold and refurbished as office space.  Only the small terrace where you find the Sherlock Holmes museum still has the look we associate with the area. 

The upper stories of most of the older buildings are residential flats; the ground floors are retail - a bit like 221b being over Speedy’s Cafe.  There are no fewer than six souvenir shops (taking advantage of the tourist trade to see the Sherlock Holmes museum), so you will need to write those out.  There is a Holmes themed grill restaurant, too, which writers should ignore.  There are two independent coffee shops, one nail bar, a tech seller. There is a news agents right by the entrance to the Baker Street underground; another main entrance to the station is on Marylebone Road. 

There is a Pret-a-Manger sandwich shop on the corner of Baker Street and Melcombe Street; close by on Baker Street is a Japanese restaurant and a Chinese acupuncture clinic. A small Italian pizzeria is there, too. 

There are (Shock horror- American invasion!) a Baskin Robbins, a Dunkin Donuts and a Taco Bell; even a Five Guys burger place in Marylebone station itself; across the main Marylebone Road, within ten minutes walk of 221b you will also find a Macdonalds, a KFC and a Nandos Chicken, a Costa and a Starbucks all of which are catering to tourists (Americans amongst others) who are on their pilgrimage to see the Holmes museum. Also in this area, you can find the Pizza Express, 

You need to look further afield for the sort of take out places that John and Sherlock frequent. The Rayyan serving Lebanese is across Glentworth Street from the Phoenix Palace serving Canonese. Both do take-away and are ten minutes’ walk from 221b. There’s also a Thai restaurant on Baker Street south of Marylebone. Delivery is different- it could come from much further afield, depending on whether Sherlock likes the look of their door handles.

When it comes to groceries, the nearest convenience store (they are all pretty small in London) is the Tesco Express on Melcombe Street which is actually larger than many of the Tesco London shops; it’s about a five minute walk from Baker Street. The nearest post office is also on Melcombe street inside a green grocers (they have fruit and veg and some dried goods) called “The Fruit Garden”. There’s a bigger post office on Baker Street south of Marylebone.  On Baker Street itself, south of Marylebone Road, there is another Tesco Express right next door to a Sainsbury’s Local (another big British brand of supermarket). 

For locals, crossing Marylebone Road takes time. It’s a very busy road (THE main east- west route for traffic going towards the Midlands). Pedestrian crossing is by light signal and you can wait a surprisingly long time, which has to be factored in to your shopping expeditions for John. 

Far closer to 221b, Melcombe Street is the place where they’d go for day-to-day stuff.  There’s a hardware shop, a dry cleaner’s (necessary to get that Belstaff cleaned!) and an Oddbins (wine & spirits merchant). 

I hope you find this helpful!

The Vernet Connection to Sherlock Holmes

In Conan Doyle’s “The Greek Interpreter” (1893)  the story begins with Holmes and Watson “discussing hereditary aptitudes” after tea one summer’s evening. “In your case”, Watson tells Holmes, “it seems obvious that your faculty of observation in your peculiar facility for deduction are due to own systematic training.” “To some extent,” Holmes replies, “but, nonetheless, my turn that way is in my veins, and may come with my grandmother, who was the sister of Vernet, the French artist.”

That Doyle chose to give his hero artistic relations is not surprising, for Doyle’s own uncle was an artist, as was his grandfather. But WHICH Vernet? For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Vernet family of painters, let me enlighten you. 

The portrait above is of the patriarch, Claude Joseph Vernet 1714-1789. He was THE leading French landscape painter of the late 18th century and well known in Britain. He was something of a celebrity and produced paintings of tempests and moonlit scenes, usually involving the sea. Perhaps his most famous work is The Shipwreck.

This is in the National Art Gallery in Trafalgar Square, perhaps yet another reason why Sherlock is familiar with the gallery. 

The Vernet family was from Avignon, in the Provence, which is southern France. Fan fic writers take note! If you send your Sherlock to France to visit French relatives, site him there. 

Charles-Claude spent twenty years living and painting in Rome and it was in Rome that he met and married in 1745 an English woman called  Virginia Cecilia Parker, who was the daughter of an English captain serving in the papal navy. He was summoned back to France to deal with Royal commissions to paint scenes of French ports.

Their youngest son also became a painter.  Antoine Charles Horace Vernet, better known as Carle Vernet (14 August 1758 – 27 November 1836), was born in Bordeaux. 

He was an avid horseman and many of his early works featured horses. He won the Prix de Paris for his early work, but gave up painting during the French Revolution, perhaps because his sister was executed by the guillotine during the Terror! He became an avid supporter of Napoleon and painted many Napoleonic war battle scenes. 

He had a son who also became a painter,  Émile Jean-Horace Vernet (30 June 1789 – 17 January 1863), more commonly known as simply Horace Vernet. He continued the family tradition of painting landscapes, battle scenes and portraits, adding in the new trend for Orientalist imagery. This is a self-portrait. 

Over the course of his long career, Horace Vernet was honoured with dozens of important commissions. King Louis-Philippe was one of his most prolific patrons. He travelled with the French army to the Crimean War and spent time in Egypt and Malta. He was also interested in early forms of photography, sitting for a  daguerreotype in 1858.

All useful background for fan fic writers!

Britpicking the Difference Between Sarcasm and Irony

My previous post on British use of irony provoked a couple of interesting replies, which leads me to attempt to deal with the difference between sarcasm and irony. 

In my experience as both an American and a Brit, the Americans are masters of sarcasm and the Brits are masters of irony. There is a difference, however, so if you are writing your fan fic set in the UK, it is worth trying to grasp the slippery concept of how they differ.

Irony is the opposite of what you would expect. Sarcasm, on the other hand, has a condescending tone meant to embarrass or insult someone.

How to tell the difference?  Verbal irony and sarcasm have one distinct difference, which is negativity. Sarcasm is typically witty mockery. Therefore, it has a negative connotation, whereas verbal irony doesn’t.

I can give you two examples from my own experience today. I walk the dog no matter what the weather. Telling my black Lab that it is raining like a monsoon makes no difference at all. So, kitted up for the gale force wind and driving rain, I walked along the path and met another dog walker. I smiled and said “Whatever the weather…” and he replied, “Lovely out, isn’t it.” I walked on to the path alongside the allotments where two guys were digging holes to plant a new beech hedge. “Lovely afternoon for gardening,” I said to which they replied with an ironic smile, “At least this will water them in well.” 

This is how irony is used constantly in British conversations. 

That said, it isn’t easy to spot the dividing lines between irony and sarcasm. Sherlock, for example, is a master at verbal irony, saying one thing that actually implies the exact opposite, but he does so in a sarcastic manner . 

Maybe an example or two might clarify things:

Irony - A client saying, ‘I quite enjoy muddy boot prints on my new white carpet.’

Sarcasm - Sherlock saying to that client, ‘White was a fabulous choice for your new carpet. It goes great with 2 kids and 3 dogs.”

Sarcasm is like irony with attitude. Sarcasm doesn’t have any other purpose but to insult or embarrass, even yourself.

In his wedding speech, Sherlock demonstrated both irony and sarcasm and I will admit that find it hard to tell the difference between them or exactly where the boundary was crossed.  

He was being ironic when he said to a room full of wedding guests, standing at the top table with the bride and groom,  “Today we honour the death-watch beetle that is the doom of our society and, in time – one feels certain – our entire species.”

It turns to sarcasm, however, when he later says “Indeed, any reputation I have for mental acuity and sharpness comes, in truth, from the extraordinary contrast John so selflessly provides.”

However, he then goes on to admit

Because he is admitting his earlier irony about weddings should not be taken seriously and that he is the one being ridiculous, he is reverting back to sarcasm, that is, insulting himself.

If a native speaker like me has problems dealing with this, imagine how tough it is for someone who has learned English as a second or third language!

London    Smithfield

Outside the city of London’s walls, along the east bank of the Fleet River, was an area known as smoothfields, which served as the city’s cattle and livestock market. Gazing and access to water mattered! Some of the streets that still remain today: Cow Cross Street and Cock Lane. Now the Fleet runs underground and the area is known as Smithfield. Smithfield market (or London Central Markets to give it the official title) is the largest wholesale meat market in the UK and one of the largest in Europe.  It still functions as such in a building that is an architectural masterpiece, listed as a historic monument. 

For Sherlock fans, Smithfield is the site of St Bartholomew’s hospital and at the southern end across Newgate Street, you will find the Old Bailey where Moriarty stood trial.

This is OLD London. The area was known as Aldersgate Without (as in outside the walls) for centuries. The Roman City of London walls were built in about 200 a.d. and Aldersgate became the access route to the northwest of the country. In the 12th century, the King gave the land to the Augustinian order who built the Priory of St Bartholomew.

The Priory Church of St Bartholomew the Great is London’s oldest parish church still in use today. St Bartholomew The Less is another church which is now inside the precinct of St Bartholomew Hospital and used as the hospital’s chapel. The hospital was set up as a gift to the priory from one of Henry the First’s courtiers. It survived the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII although its income was drastically cut when the Priory was dissolved and the lands taken by the crown. Henry solved the problem by giving the hospital to the corporation of the City of London in 1546.

Barts is the oldest hospital in England still operating on its original site. It’s been threatened with closure a few times, mostly based on the fact that there are lots of London hospitals. The last time was in 1993, when the Save our Barts campaign got sufficient popular and political support that the idea was shelved. The accident and emergency department closed in 1995.

It’s now part of the NHS Barts Trust, which has five hospitals- Barts, The Royal London, The London Chest Hospital, Whipps Cross and Newham hospitals.

The Barts medical school facilities are actually up the road at Charterhouse Square, so John would not have spent a lot of time in the pathology lab where he met Sherlock. It’s also where medical students are housed. 

It’s not the only thing that he wouldn’t recognise because it has changed so much. The street called “Little Britain” used to be lined with small shops (goldsmiths to start with, later booksellers, finally quaint restaurants). The area was originally settled by  Bretons, an ethnic group originating in Brittany, France.   As the rich residents slowly abandoned the neighbourhood, it became the home of many booksellers for a time. The street is mentioned in Charles Dickens’ novel, “Great Expectations”, as the location of Mr. Jaggers’ law office, a place that connects many of the characters.

Now, alas, all gone. “Bart’s Square”, a new development by the City of London corporation, flattened all the old buildings and created yet more boring glass mid-rise offices and apartment blocks. 

Boring, as Sherlock would say.

The residents in the area tend to be wealthy professionals who can afford the rents or purchase prices, Otherwise, it’s a curious mix of office workers, medical staff, meat packers and the occasional Sherlock fan wanting a photo of that iconic image. It too has changed dramatically, although you might not realise it because the Pathology building’s facade is listed, so they flattened everything BEHIND it, re-building it into a state-of-the-art hospital run by Nuffield a not-for-profit but private (a sin not NHS) organisation.  The 48-bedroom facility should have opened in spring this year (COVID delays!) to specialise in cardiology, cardiac surgery, oncology and orthopaedics and will feature four operating theatres and 28 consultation rooms.

Poor Molly will have been banished to the mortuary in the Royal London Hospital’s Pathology and Pharmacy Building at Whitechapel!