In autumn, when London’s streets will be shrouded in mist and the ghosts of Victorian times will seem a little closer to the surface, Benedict Cumberbatch’s coat will be on display at the Museum of London.
The Belstaff coat and Derek Rose camel dressing gown will be part of The Sherlock Holmes exhibition.
The exhibition, which will open on October 17 and close on Sunday 12 April 2015, will be the largest of its kind for more than 60 years; the last major temporary exhibition about Sherlock Holmes was staged during the 1951 Festival of Britain. It’ll draw on the museum’s rich and fabulous Victorian and Edwardian collection and feature Sherlock Holmes material from around the world.
Visitors will re-trace the literary beginnings of Sherlock Holmes, from original manuscripts to the first copies of The Strand magazine in 1891, examining how the consulting detective has evolved from Conan Doyle’s early concepts.
Edgar Allan Poe was a formative influence on the Sherlock author, and the exhibition will include a rare loan of hand-written manuscript pages from The Murders in the Rue Morgue (1841), the seminal crime fiction story of its era, on loan from the Free Library of Philadelphia and in the UK for the first time.
Joining this is Conan Doyle’s own manuscript of The Adventure of the Empty House (1903), the story which sees the return of Sherlock Holmes after his confrontation with Moriarty at the Reichenbach Falls (on loan from The Rosenbach of the Free Library of Philadelphia).
Original drawings by Sidney Paget, who illustrated the stories in The Strand magazine, will appear alongside a unique oil on canvas painting by the same artist, which is being displayed to the UK public for the first time.
The evolution of Holmes and his portrayal in popular culture will be considered from stage to screen, including the performances of William Gillette, Basil Rathbone and Jeremy Brett. Each actor offers clues to why he has endured, reinvented for generation after generation – an underlying theme of the exhibition.
Paintings, drawings, illustrations and photographs will examine how Victorian London and the cultural climate of the day informed Conan Doyle’s stories and characters, interpreting renowned artists and photographers through the prism of Sherlock Holmes and identifying key locations.
Painting highlights include Westminster Bridge, Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey (1872) by John Anderson, The Regent Street Quadrant at Night (1897) by Francis Forster and the atmospheric prints of William Wyllie and Joseph Pennell (courtesy of the US Library of Congress). Each one offers an artistic insight into the London of Sherlock Holmes. A fascinating collection of 19th-century photography will bring the city into even sharper perspective, depicting familiar scenes from the stories.
A vast collection of objects from the period when Conan Doyle was writing, including costume, will intertwine with the stories of Sherlock Holmes.
The Museum of London and Museum of London Docklands are open daily 10am – 6pm and are FREE to all.
(Featured image: bellaphon)
