I Was Supposed To Be Cool And Mysterious Like Sherlock Holmes But Instead I Can't Stop Yapping About

i was supposed to be cool and mysterious like sherlock holmes but instead I can't stop yapping about anything and everything that interests me in the slightest. like sherlock holmes

everybody wants to be my enemy

Shut ur up, people can wear whatever they want to pride, also ur misgendering a random guy because how dare he be proud of his body huh?

The Criterion Bar’s Gay History

Most know the Criterion Bar as the place where Dr. John Watson met his young friend Stamford on that fateful night before being introduced to the one and only Sherlock Holmes, the man who would be the star of Dr. Watson’s writings.

What is not commonly known or spoken about is the Criterion Bar’s Victorian history…

That of being a Victorian Gay Bar.

Now official ‘gay bars’ were not exactly a thing in the Victorian Era due to anti-LGBT laws (including Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885). That said, the Criterion Bar was known (when the stories were written) as a meeting point for gay men in the Victorian era.

‘A New City of Friends’: London and Homosexuality in the 1890s

By Matt Cook

“..Ives noted that the Criterion Bar on Piccadilly Circus was ‘a great centre for inverts’ until it closed in 1905 .”

The Inverted City: London and the Constitution of Homosexuality 1885-1914, M. D. Cook

https://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/jspui/handle/123456789/1620

The Criterion Bar is spoken about by George Cecil Ives, an LGBT advocate in the Victorian era and leader of the secret LGBT society, the Order of Chaeronea.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_Chaeronea

George Cecil Ives was also friends to both Oscar Wilde and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and George Cecil Ives were friends and cricket teammates on the team “Allahakbarries”, which, at the time, they thought meant ‘Heaven Help Us’.

When it comes to Sherlock Holmes, of all the bars within London that could be chosen for Dr. Watson and Stamford to meet, and for Watson to be lead from to be introduced to Holmes, Sir. Arthur Conan Doyle chose to use -that- one.

(Special thanks to @ImaBretthead for pointing out the bar’s past.)

“ Willie Hornung, the brother-in-Law Of ACD, was a friend of George Ives. He used him as the model for the gentleman thief Raffles, in his series of books. Sir Arthur was also acquainted with Mr. Ives.

Cafe Royal, The Langham Hotel, The Criteron Bar…These are not coincidences.”

- @ImaBretthead

That's a good point. I know lots of people, especially older generations can get genuinely offended by being compared to/confused with Russians - and that's okay. It's very understandable. I personally take getting compared to Russians with amusement, because the people who often say those things usually don't do it out of malice, but ignorance. It just shows how little they know (I've come across SO many people who don't even know Czechia exists, and those that do often call it Czechoslovakia). But you're 100% right that my ability to make jokes out of it is influenced by the fact I never had to experience the occupation.

By now I really should be used to hearing "oh, do you speak russian there?" when I tell people I'm from czechia, but every single time it still feels like a personal attack.