Feb 23, 2014 - 1 min read

Sherlock Holmes' Room, Kitano, Kobe

Replica of the famous fictional detective's room

Community writer

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The Sherlock Holmes' Room entrance at the England House in the Kitano district in Kobe. At night-time it really fills you with a mysterious feeling, similar to the ones that Sherlock Holmes' books can provoke.

Night-time view of the England House and the traffic passing by. Overall it is a quiet setup, but the bar inside is lively and you can enjoy the British atmosphere, and a great variety of beers.

The Sherlock Holmes' Room was constructed on the second floor of the museum on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the museum in 2007. The sign says that it is the first replica of the Sherlock Holmes' room in Japan.

A view inside the fictional writer's room, where he is standing in the window! You can not only enjoy looking at the interior of the room, but you can also put on his coat and his hat and walk around with it—that's how you get a real impression of his lifestyle at the time. I took the shot with a special sepia setting on the camera to match the mood.

The entrance at night-time

The England House by night, seen from the parking lot. The bar inside the house only closes at around 22:00, although the museum on the second floor closes already at 18:00 in summer and 17:00 in winter.

Around Christmas, the room gets an unusual visitor peeping through the same window that Sherlock looks through from the inside.

I used to live in Kobe, within a minutes walk from the England House, one of the former foreign mansions, known as Ijinkan, in the Kitano district. Some of the houses have been converted into museums, as it is the case with the so-called English House. It is a typical colonial-style Western house and it also houses a unique English-style bar on the first floor, which is not to miss! On the second floor you can then visit the Sherlock Holmes' Room, a replica of the fictional detective's room—it really adds to the typical English atmosphere, which is otherwise pretty rare in Japan.