Conan Doyle at Portsmouth Museum and Red 64

So on Sunday we took a walk to the altogether excellent Portsmouth Museum.
The driver for the walk from our hotel was the exhibition about Sherlock Holmes and his creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Items associated with the fictional Holmes

In fact Sir Arthur was an awful lot more than just the creator of Holmes, he was a Doctor, a keen sportsman (who played in goal for Portsmouth), a campaigner and he was also something of a spiritualist.


Almost as fascinating as Sir Arthur was the man who donated his life's work to Portsmouth Museum and whose death was the inspiration for two crime novels the very mysterious Richard Lancelyn Green.

With Holmes Sir Arthur created the modern detective and his accoutrements have become shorthand for detection - with the symbolism of the pipe and magnifying glass deployed in a variety of advertising campaigns for a diverse selection of products.

Not as worn by Holmes

The Museum though is far more than just a homage to Sir Arthur, there's a great section on modern history recreating rooms in working class homes, a fantastic selection of Sickert drawings and a lot about the artist Edward King (b 1863) who spent 25 years in a Portsmouth Asylum following a breakdown triggered by his wife's death.

A really great provincial museum - with free entry.

A front room that brought history to life

Red 64

Perhaps it should be a 'person' box?

A touch of 'Stateside'

[see the latest rough cut of the ongoing project here]