Sherlock Holmes, consulting detective, was created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in his 1887 novella, A Study in Scarlet. Holmes would go on to star in four novels and more than fifty short stories, as well as countless plays, films, TV shows, and witless jokes and puns.

Doyle didn't start out as an author. He was a trained ophthalmologist, and tried to open a practice in London at 2 Upper Wimpole Street (then known as Devonshire Place). It was a failure, but he used the office and his ample free time to begin his work on the Sherlock stories.

Dr Watson is introduced in A Study in Scarlet as having retired from the army and living a "comfortless, meaningless existence" in a London hotel on Strand. Doyle doesn't mention anywhere by name, but the Savoy, opened in 1889, gives us a good idea of what he had in mind.

Desperate for new lodgings, and a little excitement in life, Watson visits the Criterion Restaurant, overlooking Piccadilly Circus, and runs into an old friend who soon introduces him to Sherlock Holmes. Today, you can still visit The Criterion, it's just behind the fountain.

Holmes' home. When Doyle first wrote the stories this address didn't exist. In the late 1920s Baker Street was extended and numbers 219–229 came to be occupied by the Abbey National Building Society. For many years, they employed a secretary to answer post addressed to Mr Holmes.

It might be a fictional address, but 221B has caused some very real legal arguments. In 1990, the Sherlock Holmes Museum changed the numbers of their address from 229 to 221B. This caused some postal confusion, but since the building society moved in 2005, no-one's complained.

In any case, the Georgian townhouse that the museum occupies does actually resemble Holmes' house as described in the novels. Inside, they've even filled it with props, period furniture, and costumed staff.

If you think you recognise this address, that's because its the 221B Baker Street as seen in the BBC's spellbinding series, Sherlock. Attentive observers will note that Speedy's is also a real cafe, so why not head inside and have a cup of tea.

4 Whitehall Place was the original site of Scotland Yard, headquarters of the Metropolitan Police and sometime rivals of Sherlock Holmes. The headquarters has since moved but the name has stuck. What 'Wall Street' is to banking, 'Scotland Yard' is to 'The Met'.

The Royal Opera House on Bow Street appears in many of the Holmes stories. This stunning glass atrium was built in 1860 as a flower market. It's now known as the Paul Hamlyn Hall, and houses the Opera's champagne bar and restaurant.

Finally, in The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor, Holmes tracks down Francis Hay Moulton, "small, wiry, sunburnt man, clean-shaven, with a sharp face and alert manner", to this hotel, now a pub named in his honor. Time to put your feet up. Consider it a good day's sleuthing.

Churches come in a huge range of sizes and styles. From solid stone structures built hundreds of years ago, to contemporary creations constructed using cutting edge building techniques, our churches, chapels and cathedrals are incredibly varied. 

However, there is one architectural feature almost all have in common: the spire. Used to symbolize church builders’ heavenly aspirations, and make religious buildings visible for miles around, spires can be found on churches from Brazil to Barcelona and Mexico to the USA. Here are some of our favorites. 

The seat of the Archbishop of New York, and the largest Gothic Revival Catholic Cathedral in North America, St Patrick’s is one of the most iconic buildings in Manhattan. The cathedral’s spires stand either side of its imposing Fifth Avenue entrance. Measuring 329.5 feet (100 m), they compete with nearby skyscrapers and ensure the cathedral isn’t completely lost in the city’s high rise skyline.  

Construction started in 1858 but was halted during the American Civil War. The cathedral was finally completed in 1878, although the spires themselves weren’t added until 10 years later in 1888. At the time of completion, the spires were the tallest structures in New York City.

If you thought St Patrick’s Cathedral took a long time to finish spare a thought for the hardworking builders of the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. Work on the structure began way back in 1882 and is still going on to this day. The many holdups to have delayed the build include the Spanish Civil War, the original plans being destroyed by fire and the Covid-19 pandemic.

Gaudí's original design called for a total of 18 spires. These were to represent the Twelve Apostles, the Virgin Mary, the four Evangelists and, tallest of all, Jesus Christ. To date, just nine of these have been built. When the remaining towers are complete, the Sagrada Familia will be the tallest church building in the world. 

Construction of Sao Paulo Cathedral began in 1913 and ended more than four decades later in 1954. A mix of Neo-Gothic and Renaissance style architecture, the cathedral is 111 meters long, 46 meters wide and 30 meters high. It took over 800 tons of rare marble to build the cathedral and it can accommodate up to 8,000 people. 

Sao Paulo Cathedral has twin spires which stand either side of the main entrance. They rise to a height of 92 meters, dwarfing everything else around them. Despite having a renaissance style dome, the building is considered to be the 4th largest Neo-Gothic cathedral in the world. 

The Cathedral of Brasilia was designed by Oscar Niemeyer and dedicated on May 31st 1970. The conical shape of the structure is formed by 16 concrete columns, each of which forms a spire at its top. A large cross sits in the middle of the cathedral’s roof, adding a focal point to the building’s outline.