Accurate re-creation of Sherlock Holme's rooms based on readings from all novels
stutler.cc
stutler.cc
It also can't be accurate since the original is (for the most part) imaginary, and everybody that reads the books will see this different with their own imagination augmenting the text.
Taking it to the point of reconciling all the bits of data in the stories without finding contradictions suggests that Conan Doyle had a pretty extensive series of notes on his characters lodgings.
Its a re-creation of the detailed model Conan Doyle had either in mind or in his notes. Which as you point out is supported strongly by the fact that a coherent model can be made from the stories
Were any notes supporting a detailed model ever found?
Most authors that write long running stories or sequels keep notes of some sort to avoid contradicting themselves, given the length of the Sherlock Holmes run I would be more surprised if such notes were not used, that would be an amazing feat of memory.
I have trouble envisioning the room next door in great detail, for instance, I know there is a chest of drawers there, but I couldn't tell you if it has 5 or 6 drawers even though I've seen it a hundred times.
You find this a very common factor in many writers; particularly ye-olde ones (where keeping and searching notes was not as easy as now) whereby they would have a detailed and vivid scene in their mind - which was easier to remember.
The article is all about the stuff in Holmes' rooms.
(that they agree with the current museum building is possibly due to the current building being chosen because it fitted the description - rather than it being known as the correct address)
edit: Apropos Conan Doyle:
A cabbie picked up the great writer at a Paris railroad station to drive him to his hotel.
Upon parting the cabbie said: "Goodbye mr. Doyle".
Conan Doyle taken aback by this responded: "How do you know who I am, do you recognize me from my picture?"
the cabbie: "No, sir, I've never seen a picture of you before, but I read you were going to be vacationing in France, your coat has the cut of an English gentleman, you have an ink spot on your finger indicating you are a writer and the train I picked you up on hails from the coast. All these clues together made it very likely that you were the great writer himself."
Doyle: "Amazing feats of deduction, you are worthy of being an incarnation of Sherlock himself!"
Cabbie: "Oh, and one more thing, your bag has your name written on it".
Search for "there was no 221 Baker Street during the years of the Sherlock Holmes stories".
Some authors can't always go to this level of detail. For example J. K. Rowling was in Scotland when writing the first Harry Potter book, as a result she describes Kings Cross from memory, confusing it with another London Station, so her description of it does match the real world location.
There's a museum/gift shop there now.
The pictures that I can find now online look a lot more residential than what I remember from 2000 or so. I remember that it was a granite-slab front office building with a pla
The location of the original 221 is not known for certain because of street renumbering and destruction during the Blitz.
The stories start in 1887, interior flush toilets were something of a luxury at the time, having only been popularized two years prior (by a guy called Twyford).
Houses that already existed did not have room for a 'privy' unless they were extensively remodeled (a toilet needs a lot of plumbing).
If there was a toilet it was most likely on the ground floor, near the front of the house (to economize on the runs of big diameter pipes).
In a building of the age of 221b Baker Street it's unlikely that it was overhauled to allow the necessary plumbing for indoor toilets.
Around 1900, rich men might not have toilets either. What they did have was servants to take out the chamberpots. Said chamberpots might reside in a wooden arm-chair, where the bottom part was enclosed (with a front door, a mini-cupboard, if you will), and the seat would have a manhole-like cover, of the same wood.
In the country (and perhaps not only), chamberpot contents would go into the manure pile. Which might be under an outhouse with a similar seat arrangement.