See London like Sherlock Holmes did

You can now prowl around the London locations tied to the new action-mystery movie “Sherlock Holmes,” thanks to the nation’s VisitBritain tourist agency.

The agency has developed a microsite to tout the film’s Holmes-related venues.

High on the list is the Sherlock Holmes Museum, at 221B Baker St., Holmes’ residence in the novels by Arthur Conan Doyle. While there, visitors can pick up a booklet that leads a Holmes-themed London walking tour ($6).

Another location, St. Paul’s Cathedral, was used for interiors and exteriors of the new film, which debuts Christmas Day. The 300-year-old landmark’s impressive geometric staircase is featured, but the landmark’s interior would be worth a few hours at any time.

The gleaming crystal and dark paneling of Simpson’s-in-the-Strand will also help bring the character to life. In the novels, Holmes’ sidekick Watson describes dinner at the restaurant in 1902 while “looking down at the rushing stream of life on the Strand.”

Visitors could also finish the day with a stop at the Sherlock Holmes Pub, which is decorated with Holmes memorabilia. Meanwhile, a London Walks “In the Footsteps of Sherlock Holmes” walking tour takes place every Friday at 2 p.m.

The new movie is expected to be one of the big releases of the holiday season. The L.A. Times’ Rachel Abramowitz summed the movie up this way:

“Sherlock Holmes — as played by the turbo-speed Robert Downey Jr. — is a bare-knuckle brawler, a martial arts devotee with a mind that whizzes along like a Ferrari and a penchant for falling into a disheveled slough of depression between cases. And his sidekick, Watson, now embodied by Jude Law, is no neutered, bumbling tag along either, but a military man back from the Afghan wars with a definite taste for mayhem and gambling beneath his ramrod-straight posture. Directing the testosterone-riddled duo is Guy Ritchie, the British filmmaker best known for the kinetic, cartoonish violence promulgated in such gangster films as ‘Snatch.’”

–Chris Erskine, Los Angeles Times deputy Travel editor

[Butch and Sundance? No, that's Jude Law, left, and Robert Downey Jr. in a scene from "Sherlock Holmes," due out on Christmas Day; photo courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures]

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This entry was posted on Friday, November 13, 2009 at 2:00 pm by Chris Erskine and is filed under Europe, Great Britain. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.