A Cheat Sheet to London

Writing about a city you don’t live in can be challenging, especially when the characters you write about are very steeped in a particular metropolis, the way that Sherlock Holmes and John Watson are so associated with London.

It’s challenging, too, when you might be writing of Holmes and Watson in the London of the 19^th Century. London remains very much the sum of its history, but new layers are always being placed over the old, and some of its past was torn down and obliterated in various building booms over the centuries.

The tricks of writing about London (past or present) are intensified when you’re writing about Sherlock Holmes in other ways, too. Here is a man who, in Conan Doyle’s books, prided himself on having an exact knowledge of London. 

Piling hard work upon challenge, too, is the fact that when you’re writing a Sherlock Holmes mystery, you have to write something that’s outré; that is on the lines of the grotesque. Any ordinary crime can be solved by the police. Holmes is often engaged in cases that are not even, strictly speaking crimes, or if they are, they are obscure and bloodless ones.

How then is a non-Londoner writer to become steeped in the city and to introduce obscure but verifiable elements that will help to create stories both peculiar and plausible?

Why, dear reader, the answer is to cheat.

By which of course I mean research.

Here are some of the books and sites I’ve used to get to know London a little better and look for ways to introduce a little blush of reality into the twisting plots of a Sherlock Holmes story.

Londonist

Londonist delivers great little posts about contemporary London as well as its hidden history. Some favourite posts are:

• London’s rumoured secret tunnels
• A history of London postcodes
• Cross Bones Graveyard
• A Tube Map of Roman London
• London’s Lost Rivers from Above – the Westbourne

Odd London History

I have a nice little collection of books with obscure details about London – odd little stories and strange little places that exist still in that great city.

A History of London in 100 Places by David Long

• A History of London in 100 Places (Amazon)
• A History of London in 100 Places (Bookdepository)

Londonopolis by Martin Latham

• Londonopolis: A Curious History of London (Amazon)
• Londonopolis  Bookdepository

London’s Strangest Tales by Tom Quinn

• London's Strangest Tales: Extraordinary but True Stories from Over a Thousand Years of London's History (Amazon)
• London’s Strangest Tales  Bookdepository

The London Underground

Getting to grips with the London Underground is also useful reading. The Underground first opened in 1863, so Sherlock and John could have been using it from the start of their adventures. It’s not all hansom cabs and shoe leather! And did you know the famous roundel and the term ‘Underground’ weren’t used until 1908? Books and websites I’ve enjoyed and found useful are:

Underground, Overground: A Passenger’s History of the Tube by Andrew Martin

• Underground, Overground: A Passenger's History of the Tube (Amazon)
• Underground, Overground: A Passenger’s History of the Tube  (Bookdepository)

 And on the web:

• Transport for London 
• Disused stations on London’s Underground
• The Independent’s 150 facts for 150 years of the London Tube
• Train Enthusiast’s History of the London Underground
• London Transport Museums’ history of the roundel

Share your cheat sheet

I mean, share your research

What books, sites and resources can you recommend for the non-Londoner writing about London?