Recreation of Sherlock Holmes’ house in Belarusian Orsha

MINSK, 3 December (BelTA) – Plans have been made to start building a Sherlock Holmes house in the Belarusian town of Orsha in March-April 2014, BelTA learned from Oleg Shchukin, Director of the private company Protege By, which has designed the building.

According to the source, the land plot for the interesting construction project is 1.5km far from Orsha’s central avenue. The building’s design is being prepared. The company is also seeking investors for the project. If investors are available, instead of a museum or a lookalike home the project may evolve into a hotel for people willing to enjoy the hospitality of Sherlock Holmes, visit a pub, and buy a souvenir, said Oleg Shchukin.

According to the source, the idea to recreate the house of the famous fictional detective was born over 30 years ago after watching the movie series Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson by the film studio Lenfilm. Architect Polina Ryabchevskaya recreated the difficult layout of the house. English experts named actor Vasily Livanov as the best Sherlock Holmes there is while the interior of Sherlock Holmes’ house was pronounced very English. The recognition was not accidental because the film studio Lenfilm had put a lot of work into precisely recreating the house using Arthur Conan Doyle’s books. The film studio used illustrations by Sidney Paget, who worked on Arthur Conan Doyle’s books when the author was alive. As a result, the Soviet movie series received a house with an authentic Victorian age personality, said Oleg Shchukin.

The house of Sherlock Holmes that will be recreated in Orsha combines classic features and modern amenities. It features a ground floor with a washing room, a boiler room, a garage, a training gym, the first floor with rooms for the famous detective and his reliable friend Doctor Watson and a light and spacious drawing room, which is a copy of the famous drawing room of Mistress Hudson in Baker Street where Sherlock Holmes would solve crimes. The house also has an attic floor.