Criterion Restaurant in danger

I have just learned that famous London restaurant The Criterion is going into administration following an astonishing leap in rent.

The restaurant is one that I love having been a number of times over the last five or so years. Yes, I went there initially because of its Sherlockian and Doylean connections and now it looks in a similar danger to Simpson's in the Strand - the other restaurant so associated with the great detective.

One of the great things about the Sherlock Holmes stories is that they feature many specific places that actually exist. Simpson's and the Criterion are but two. The Criterion was where Watson was having drink when his former colleague Stamford tapped him on the shoulder before later introducing him to Sherlock Holmes.

However, in the real world it was also a restaurant at which Arthur Conan Doyle himself dined. Therefore it is one of a much smaller number of locations common to both creation and creator. It is also where I made the decision to write my book An Entirely New Country during a meeting of the Sherlock Holmes Society of London.

May 16th 2010 - The criterion lunch during which I decided to write An Entirely New Country. My wife and I have our backs to the camera.

The present landlord's decision to suddenly increase the rent almost looks designed to close the restaurant - so steep is the increase.

More details can be read here.

Written by Alistair Duncan

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