Arthur Conan Doyle Arrives in Southsea

1882

Arthur Conan Doyle, then an unknown young doctor, arrived in Southsea in 1882 and set up a medical practice at 1 Bush Villas, Elm Grove. He was 23 years old, recently qualified from Edinburgh, and almost entirely without money. The practice was slow to attract patients, and Doyle filled his spare time writing fiction. It was here, in a small consulting room in Southsea, that he created the character of Sherlock Holmes. A Study in Scarlet, the first Holmes story, was written at Bush Villas and published in 1887. The Sign of the Four followed in 1890. Doyle lived in Southsea for eight years, from 1882 to 1890, and the period was formative both for his literary career and his personal life. He married his first wife, Louise Hawkins, at St Osmund's Church in 1885. He also played football as goalkeeper for Portsmouth Association Football Club, an amateur side that predated the professional club. Doyle was active in local life, joining the Portsmouth Literary and Scientific Society and playing cricket. He left Southsea in 1890 to study ophthalmology in Vienna, and never returned to live in the city. A statue of Sherlock Holmes stands in Guildhall Square in Portsmouth, and the site of Bush Villas is marked with a plaque, though the original building was destroyed by bombing in 1941.