Sherlock Holmes Statue

You are standing before a three meter tall bronze statue of the world's most famous consulting detective. The sculptor John Doubleday cast this figure in nineteen ninety nine, capturing Holmes in his iconic Inverness cape and deerstalker hat. While the detective is a product of Victorian fiction, this monument owes its existence to a very real banking institution. The Abbey National Building Society once occupied the headquarters at two hundred and twenty one Baker Street, which meant they became the unintended recipient of thousands of letters addressed to Sherlock Holmes from fans all over the globe. They eventually hired a dedicated secretary just to draft replies on behalf of the fictional resident. When the building society commissioned this statue to celebrate the character's legacy, they faced a shortage of space on the actual street, so they placed their tribute here, overlooking the entrance to the Baker Street underground station.