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I conducted a good deal of research before I started to construct the re-creation of the 221b sitting room. The Canon itself
provides most of the particulars, but the information is often conflicting. I drew upon other re-creations and film versions
of the Canon. A number of references were helpful, especially some of the books by Michael Harrison. My final decision as
to the basic building structure came from Harrison's "The London of Sherlock Holmes."
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I didn't envision building the Baker Street re-creation until after I had already started to finish my basement. After the
'inspiration,' I had one end of the basement left to work with, and I wasn't willing to tear out what I had already built.
If I had it to do over again from scratch, I would have made the room a uniform width of 12 feet instead of having a 2-foot
jog in one wall.
The next challenge was creating the illusion for a visitor that he was standing on the second floor (1st Floor British), given
the fact that we were in my basement. The plan was to paint a mural of the buildings of the opposite side of Baker Street
on the back wall, and then build a wall with windows in front of that mural.
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The mural and the false wall worked out very well. The mural took about four weeks, painting after work in the evenings
and on weekends, by far the most intense endeavor of the project.
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