Door Drawing by Ashley Farmer

WRITTEN BY TOM CAMPBELL, SHS
​January 1, 2022

There are many things in life that we take for granted, mainly because the details that are presented don't seem to be important. For example, why did Arthur Conan Doyle choose "221B" as the numeric address for the Baker Street flat of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John H. Watson? The answer to that question is not necessarily important, but it is a mystery, none the less.

Every Sherlockian knows that 221B Baker Street is an address that did not really exist when Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John H. Watson rented rooms there. According to Wikipedia, an examination of an 1890 map of London will reveal that the number 85 was the highest street number issued on Baker street at the time. So why did Doyle choose 221B?​

The most common answer is that Doyle intentionally selected a fictitious street address so that no one could claim to live in the same residence once occupied by the great detective. But while I agree with that premise, it really doesn't answer the question. Why did ACD choose 221? Why not 220, or 222? Was his selection of 221 purely random? And why flat B? Why not flat A, or for that matter, why not leave the flat designation off the address altogether? 

​Based on everything I have learned about Doyle, he chose 221B for the Baker Street address because it accurately reflects the very nature of Sherlock Holmes himself!  The purpose of this paper is to provide a possible solution to that mystery, which I call "The Baker Street Secret".

DOYLE AND THE BIBLE

Examination of countless biographies about Arthur Doyle all say the same thing - he was raised Catholic but eventually disassociated himself from organized religion at an early age. But dispite the fact that he became an agnostic, he still would have retained his fairly extensive knowledge of the Bible, and the stories that it contains. In fact, many readers believe that Doyle based some of his Sherlock Holmes stories on Biblical narratives. 

One such example can be found in the article "A Study In Daniel: Tracing the Biblical Origins of Sherlock Holmes" by Rebecca Josephy. She argues that the Sherlock Holmes story entitled A Study In Scarlet is based on the Biblical story known colloquially as "The Writing On The Wall", found in the 5th chapter in the book of DANIEL. Josephy claims that "The plot, crime, and puzzle in A Study In Scarlet closely parallel a biblical episode in the book of DANIEL know as Belshazzar's Feast." If her theory is correct, it's a good example of how Doyle borrowed ideas from the Bible.

Sir Arthur
Conan
Doyle

Another example of Doyle's knowledge of the Bible as well as his familiarity with the book of DANIEL was demonstrated during a meeting with Harry Houdini in the spring of 1922. During that visit, Houdini set out to demonstrate his Slate Writing Trick. He had Doyle write several words on a piece of paper, and then conceal them from everyone. The words he wrote were "mene, mene, tekel, parsin" from the book of DANIEL. He then used his Slate Writing Trick to write out the same exact words that Doyle had written. After the trick was over, Houdini tried to convince Doyle that it was just a trick, but he refused to believe it, thinking that Houdini had authentic spiritual powers. This episode proved that Doyle was very familiar with not just the Bible, but specifically the book of ​DANIEL.

SO WHY DID DOYLE CHOOSE 221B?

As I have previously stated in the beginning of this article, when it came to chosing the Baker Street address, Doyle needed a number that was fictitious, yet meaningful. He remembered that in the 2nd chapter in the book of ​DANIEL, there is a story of Daniel was ordered to interpret King Nebuchadnezzar's first dream, because his own mystics and sorcerers could not. So Daniel prays to the God of Israel for help, and in a vision, God tells Daniel what Nebuchadnezzar's dream was and how it should be interpreted. In return, Daniel prays a prayer of thanks to God for giving him the interpretation he needs. One of the verses in Daniel's prayer of thanks, taken directly from the Challoner-Rheims Bible is as follows:

And he changeth times and ages
taketh away kingdoms, and establisheth them:
​
giveth wisdom to the wise,
and knowledge to them that have understanding:

This is a two-part verse, where the second part describes how God "giveth wisdom to the wise, and knowledge to them that have understanding." It is based on the assumption that information does not become knowledge until it is understood by the person who receives it. Furthermore, it is viewed as wisdom to those who are wise, rather than those who are foolish. When Doyle created Sherlock Holmes, he equipped the great detective with the unique ability to understand how to create knowledge from information, and the wisdom to know where and when to use it.

​And as we all know, Sherlock Holmes demonstrates this unique ability many times throughout the Canon. I believe that Doyle felt so strongly that this verse described the unique abilities of Sherlock Holmes, that he used the STANDARD BIBLICAL NOTATION FOR THIS VERSE as the famous Baker Street address. ​​In case you have not yet figured it out, the second part of this verse in standard Biblical notation is DANIEL 2:21b. And now you know the Baker Street Secret!