Baker Street

This article is about the street in London. For other uses, see Baker Street (disambiguation).

Baker Street

94 Baker Street, formerly the Apple Boutique.
Length	1.5 mi (2.4 km)
Location	Westminster, London, UK
North end	Oxford Street
To	Regent's Park
Other
Known for	Shopping · Sherlock Holmes' residence (221B Baker Street) · Baker Street robbery · Setting of Gerry Rafferty's hit song · Jethro Tull's composition · Baker Street tube station · Apple Boutique · Selfridges

Baker Street is a street in the Marylebone district of the City of Westminster in London. It is named after builder William Baker, who laid the street out in the 18th century. The street is most famous for its connection to the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes, who lives at a fictional 221B Baker Street address. The area was originally high class residential, but now is mainly occupied by commercial premises.

Baker St is a busy thoroughfare, lying in postcode areas NW1/W1 and forming part of the A41 there. It runs south from Regent's Park, the intersection with Park Road, parallel to Gloucester Place, intersecting Marylebone Road, Portman Square and Wigmore Street. At the intersection with Wigmore St, Baker St turns into Orchard Street, which ends when it intersects with Oxford Street. After Portman Square the road continues as Orchard Street. Selfridges, a landmark department store is on the corner of Orchard Street and Oxford Street.

The street is served by the London Underground by Baker Street tube station, one of the world's oldest surviving underground stations. Next door is Transport for London's lost property office.

A significant robbery of a branch of Lloyds Bank took place on Baker Street in 1971.

Notable residents

55 Baker Street

In 1835, the first permanent exhibition of Madame Tussauds waxworks was opened on Baker Street. The museum moved, just around the corner, to Marylebone Road in 1884.

In 1940 the headquarters of the Special Operations Executive moved to 64 Baker Street, they were often called the "Baker Street Irregulars" after Sherlock Holmes' gang of street urchins of the same name.

The Beatles' Apple Boutique was based at 94 Baker Street from 1967 to 1968.

For many years the head office of Marks and Spencer, formerly the UK's largest retailer, was at "Michael House" (named in parallel with the group's "St Michael" brand), 55 Baker Street, until the company relocated to the Paddington Basin in 2004. This was one of the best known corporate buildings in the UK, and has since been redeveloped as a modern office complex by London & Regional Properties to a design by Make Architects and Expedition Engineering.

A London County Council blue plaque commemorates Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger who lived at 120 Baker Street from 1803-4. British singer Dusty Springfield lived on Baker Street in the 1960s.

In media

Baker Street sign

In fiction, Sherlock Holmes, Basil the Great Mouse Detective, Sherlock Hound, Danger Mouse, Sexton Blake, Carland Cross and James Black (Case Closed) have all resided along the road.

The character Gregory House from the U.S. TV series House M.D. resides at the fictional Apartment B, 221 Baker Street in Princeton, New Jersey. House M.D. is loosely based upon and inspired by Sherlock Holmes.

"Baker Street" is a song by Gerry Rafferty, released in 1978. He also released an album entitled Baker Street.

"Baker St. Muse" is a song from Jethro Tull's album Minstrel in the Gallery, which was released in 1975.

The 2008 film, The Bank Job was based on the 1971 robbery of Lloyds Bank in Baker Street.

"Some Girls", a song by the English rock band The Rolling Stones, makes a reference to the street.

Baker Street is one of a number of London landmarks named in the song "We Are London" by Madness on the album The Liberty of Norton Folgate.

See also

• Baker Street tube station
• 64 Baker Street - headquarters of the SOE
• 221B Baker Street - Sherlock Holmes's residence
• Baker Street Irregulars - Holmes's urchin detectives
• Apple Boutique
• List of eponymous roads in London
• Baker Street - magyar leírás, hungarian language