Private Bespoke Tour: Sherlock Holmes and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

The best part of this private London tour is its connection between fiction and real places. You follow Sherlock Holmes from the Sherlock Holmes Pub and Scotland Yard to St Bartholomew’s Hospital, where Holmes and Watson first met, then finish at 221B Baker Street. Richard, a dedicated Sherlockian who worked at the Sherlock Holmes Museum, leads the way.

I like the personal pace and the mix of detective lore with Arthur Conan Doyle’s own life. I also like that the route includes familiar London sights such as Somerset House and The Langham, rather than treating Holmes as a character sealed inside Baker Street. The main drawback is that this is largely a walking tour, and you’ll need an Oyster card or travel card for the Underground. Museum admission is extra.

Key points at a glance

• A private route for up to two people: The $232.04 price covers your group, giving a couple a quieter, more flexible outing than a large scheduled walk.
• Richard brings first-hand Sherlock knowledge: He worked at the Sherlock Holmes Museum and guides both newcomers and serious Sherlockians.
• Ten stops connect fiction with fact: The route includes Scotland Yard, St Bartholomew’s Hospital, Conan Doyle’s former medical practice, and Baker Street.
• The Underground is part of the plan: Bring an Oyster card or travel card, since you move between parts of central London.
• The museum is the finale, not part of the price: You can enter the Sherlock Holmes Museum at 221B Baker Street, but admission is not included.
• Flexible timing shapes the experience: The tour lasts about three to four hours, with leisurely visits instead of a rushed checklist.

Following Holmes from Northumberland Avenue

The tour begins at Embankment station, then heads to Northumberland Avenue and the Sherlock Holmes Pub. This is a smart opening because it sets up both halves of the experience: the detective created by Conan Doyle, and the London locations that helped give the stories their flavor.

The pub occupies the former Northumberland Hotel. In The Hound of the Baskervilles, Sir Henry Baskerville stayed here after arriving in London to seek Holmes’s help. The stop also points toward the Turkish bath opposite, tied to the Holmes stories.

You spend about ten minutes here, so expect a talk and an exterior look rather than a long meal or pub visit. That short format works well at the start. Richard can explain how Conan Doyle shaped Holmes and how the detective became more than a fictional consulting detective, while you get your first dose of Victorian London atmosphere.

This is also a useful stop if you are new to Holmes. You do not need to know every case before arriving. If you can name only Baker Street and Watson, Richard’s storytelling gives you a way into the rest.

Scotland Yard and the detectives Holmes tolerated

From Northumberland Avenue, the route continues to the historic Metropolitan Police headquarters associated with Scotland Yard. This is where Lestrade and Hopkins worked in the Holmes stories, although Holmes was not known for placing their skills on the same level as his own.

The building has been restored, with large gas lamps that suit the Victorian setting. Look across the street and you may catch the right visual contrast: an old police headquarters, modern black cabs, and the idea of a hansom cab carrying Holmes to the Yard.

The visit lasts around ten minutes and is mainly about the setting and the stories connected to it. Do not expect a police museum or a long interior visit. The value is in standing where the fictional detectives were based and hearing how Conan Doyle used real institutions in his plots.

I like this sort of stop because it asks you to look at an ordinary London building with a different eye. The building does not need a theatrical display. Richard’s explanation supplies the link between the physical place and the printed page.

Simpsons in the Strand, Holmes’s favorite table

At Simpsons in the Strand, the tour shifts from police work to food. Holmes often stopped here for nourishment, and the restaurant was also associated with Charles Dickens, Conan Doyle, and Winston Churchill.

Simpsons began as a chess club and coffee house before becoming a traditional English restaurant. If you arrive before lunch service, you may be able to peek inside and see the meat-carving trolleys that have been in use since 1840.

You spend roughly ten minutes here. That is enough to see the setting and hear the story, but not enough for a full meal. If you want to eat at Simpsons, plan that separately and confirm opening arrangements for your date.

This is one of the more appealing stops for anyone who likes the social side of literary history. Holmes is often presented as a brain in a sitting room, but this place gives him a restaurant, habits, and a preferred spot in London. It also gives you a chance to connect his fictional world with famous London dining traditions.

Somerset House adds a useful London detour

Somerset House is not a direct Sherlock Holmes stop, and that is worth knowing before you book. It works as a short route between sights and a chance to see one of central London’s grand civic buildings.

The site began as a Tudor palace connected with the Duke of Somerset and was later rebuilt as a civic building in 1775. It has also appeared as a filming location in Love Actually. The tour takes you through the building and down a roughly 300-year-old staircase toward Temple station.

The stop takes about five minutes, so this is more of a passage than a full visit. That may disappoint someone expecting every stop to feature a Holmes connection. On the other hand, it prevents the tour from becoming a narrow procession of plaques and fictional references. You get a little extra London along the way.

St Bartholomew’s Hospital, where Holmes met Watson

St Bartholomew’s Hospital is one of the tour’s key locations. It is London’s oldest hospital and the place where Holmes and Watson first met in A Study in Scarlet.

The story begins with Watson meeting his old colleague Young Stamford in the Criterion Bar. Stamford mentions an eccentric man named Sherlock who needs someone to share the cost of rooms in Baker Street. Watson is then taken to a laboratory at St Bartholomew’s, where Holmes impresses him with his powers of analysis and deduction.

The partnership begins the next day at 221B Baker Street. Standing at St Bartholomew’s gives that meeting a physical setting, which is more satisfying than simply hearing the plot summarized.

You spend about twenty minutes here, making it one of the longer stops. Richard also covers the surrounding area’s wider story, so the visit is not limited to one scene from one book.

For many people, this is the emotional center of the tour. Baker Street is the famous address, but St Bartholomew’s is where the partnership starts. If you care about how the Holmes stories are built, this stop deserves your attention.

The Langham and Conan Doyle’s turning point

The Langham hotel offers a different kind of Holmes connection. In August 1889, the grand hotel had only recently opened when Arthur Conan Doyle and Oscar Wilde were invited to dinner with an American publisher looking for new talent.

That meeting helped launch both authors’ international careers. It is an excellent reminder that Conan Doyle’s story was not only about a fictional detective. He was a doctor, writer, and ambitious professional whose career developed through London connections and opportunities.

The stop lasts about five minutes. You will not have a full hotel tour, but the building provides a strong setting for a short story about literary careers and publishing.

I like this pause because it broadens the tour. If every stop focused only on Holmes, the afternoon could feel repetitive. The Langham puts Conan Doyle himself back in the center.

Queen Anne Street and Watson’s medical life

At Queen Anne Street, the story follows Dr Watson after his marriage to Mary Morstan. Watson eventually leaves the bachelor arrangement at Baker Street, sets up a home, and opens a medical practice at 8 Queen Anne Street.

The stop takes around five minutes and is mainly an exterior look. You can picture Holmes arriving with his cane, calling Watson away from domestic life for another case, while Mrs Watson grows tired of the interruptions.

That domestic angle gives the Holmes stories a little more depth. Watson is not simply a narrator who waits in the Baker Street sitting room. He has a career, a marriage, and obligations outside Holmes’s investigations.

The stop may feel brief if you want a detailed discussion of Mary Morstan or Watson’s later life. Still, it adds an important point: Holmes’s cases affected the people around him, not just the detective himself.

Conan Doyle’s former practice at Crosbie Care

Crosbie Care is a particularly important pilgrimage for serious Sherlockians. Arthur Conan Doyle practiced medicine in this building, and the exterior remains unchanged from his time there in 1891.

He walked to the practice each morning, a journey of about twenty minutes. Between patients, he wrote the stories that became The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. The joke attached to the practice is that not a single patient darkened his door.

You spend about ten minutes here. There is no promise of an interior visit, so the building’s exterior and Richard’s explanation carry the stop.

This is where the author and character come closest together. Conan Doyle’s medical training helped shape Holmes’s use of observation, diagnosis, and deduction. Seeing the place where he worked makes that connection more concrete.

For me, this stop is more valuable than a simple photo at a famous address. It tells you why Holmes can sound so methodical and why his methods feel different from those of a typical fictional detective.

Baker Street Station and the Holmes statue

Baker Street station is one of the oldest and best-preserved London Underground stations. Since the Holmes stories occasionally mention Holmes and Watson using the Underground, the station itself fits the route as more than a convenient transport point.

Outside, you find the Sherlock Holmes statue. The Abbey National Building Society commissioned it while occupying 221 Baker Street for several years. Richard uses the statue as a place to explain another piece of Holmes-related London lore before leading you toward Baker Street.

The stop lasts around five minutes. You get time to greet the statue and take photographs, but it is not a long museum-style presentation.

This is also where the tour’s connection with modern Holmes adaptations becomes useful. The experience includes filming locations from Sherlock television adaptations, although the supplied route details do not identify each filming site separately. If screen versions are your main reason for booking, ask Richard in advance which adaptation locations are included on your date.

221B Baker Street and the museum finale

The tour ends at the Sherlock Holmes Museum at 221B Baker Street. You can browse for souvenirs or enter the museum, which is arranged as Holmes and Watson’s shared home with their landlady, Mrs Hudson.

The planned visit is about forty minutes, but admission is not included. You should budget for the ticket separately if you want to go inside. The guide can bring you to the door, but the museum visit is the point at which you decide how much extra time and money to spend.

Ending here makes sense. You have followed Holmes through working London, police London, literary London, and Conan Doyle’s own professional world. At Baker Street, the fictional home becomes the final stop.

The museum is likely to appeal most to committed fans. Someone new to Holmes may prefer the exterior, the statue, and the stories told along the route, especially if they do not want to pay for another attraction. The choice is yours, which helps keep the private format flexible.

What the private format is worth

The price is $232.04 per group of up to two people. For two people, that works out to about $116.02 each before Underground fares and museum admission. For one person, the same group price is harder to justify, unless a private guide and a custom pace matter more to you than the per-person cost.

You are paying for Richard’s time, a private itinerary, and the freedom to ask questions without holding up a group. That matters here because the subject can move in several directions: Holmes’s cases, Conan Doyle’s biography, London architecture, police history, restaurants, and television adaptations.

The price is less attractive if you want a cheap overview or a fast photo walk. Several stops last only five or ten minutes, and some are exterior views. The value comes from the connections and the explanation, not from the number of attractions you enter.

The tour is commonly booked well ahead, with an average booking lead time of 121 days. That does not guarantee that every date needs such advance planning, but it is a good reason to reserve early if your London schedule is fixed.

Walking, Underground travel, and timing

Allow three to four hours. The tour is mainly on foot, with the London Underground helping you move between parts of central London. An Oyster card or travel card is required to make the Underground journeys easier.

Wear comfortable shoes and leave room in your schedule. The pace is described as leisurely, but this is not a seated literary lecture. You move from street to street, pause at buildings, and use public transport between locations.

The start point is Embankment station on Embankment Place. The end is Baker Street, next to the Sherlock Holmes Museum. That makes the finish practical if you want to continue sightseeing in the Baker Street area.

The route includes ten listed stops, but not every stop has the same weight. St Bartholomew’s Hospital and Crosbie Care need more explanation than the statue or Somerset House. A private guide can spend more time where your interest lies, which is one of the strongest reasons to choose this format.

Who will get the most from this tour

I would choose this tour if you fit one or more of these groups:

• You are a Sherlock Holmes fan who wants more than a museum visit.
• You are curious about Arthur Conan Doyle as a doctor and author.
• You want a private guide rather than a large group.
• You enjoy literary locations, old buildings, and stories tied to real streets.
• You are happy to walk and use the Underground.
• You want a flexible afternoon with time for questions.

It also suits a couple who want to share one subject without committing to a full-day activity. Families can participate, but children must be accompanied by an adult.

The tour may not suit you if you want frequent interior visits, a fully accessible vehicle-based route, or a low-cost sightseeing option. Service animals are allowed, and most people can participate, but the supplied details do not promise a step-free route at every stop.

Richard’s manner is another reason to consider it. The available comments describe him as courteous, thoughtful, accommodating, and able to explain obscure details. One afternoon was described as relaxed and flexible, with interesting information throughout. That combination matters more here than a rehearsed list of facts, since the route depends on conversation.

My verdict: book it for the stories, not just the photos

Book this private Sherlock Holmes tour if you want London locations tied together by a real guide who knows the subject from the inside. Richard’s experience at the Sherlock Holmes Museum, his attention to Conan Doyle, and the flexible private format give the route more substance than a simple Baker Street stop.

I would be less eager to book it if your main goal is entering a series of attractions. Most visits are brief, admission is not included, and the Underground fare is extra. But if you like walking through London while stories, authors, restaurants, hospitals, and police offices begin to connect, the price can be fair for two people.

The strongest plan is to book ahead, carry your Oyster card or travel pass, wear good walking shoes, and decide before arrival if you want to pay for the museum. Then let the afternoon focus on the best question in the Holmes canon: what can this place tell you that the book alone cannot?

FAQ

How long does the Sherlock Holmes and Arthur Conan Doyle tour last?

The tour lasts approximately three to four hours.

Where does the tour begin?

It begins at Embankment station on Embankment Place, London WC2N 6NS.

Where does the tour finish?

It finishes at Baker Street, by the Sherlock Holmes Museum.

Is the tour private?

Yes. It is a private activity for only your group, with a maximum of two people at the listed price.

Is admission to the Sherlock Holmes Museum included?

No. The tour ends at the museum, but admission is not included.

Do I need an Oyster card or travel card?

Yes. The tour is mainly on foot, and an Oyster card or travel card is required for the London Underground portions.

Is the tour suitable for children?

Children can take part, but they must be accompanied by an adult.

Can I cancel for a full refund?

Yes. You can cancel at least 24 hours before the experience start time for a full refund. Cancellations or changes made within 24 hours are not refunded or accepted.