The Criterion Bar and queer-coding

[mightymads]

Uprooted and lonely, Watson meets Stamford at the Criterion in early 1881. It was pointed out by many sources that the Criterion Bar was a popular meeting place among queer men. Also, the Criterion, being a luxurious establishment, was visited by such celebrities as H. G. Wells and Winston Churchill. In addition, it was a venue for suffragettes to discuss their plans as the Bar was famous for its excellent afternoon tea.

So what role does the Criterion play in A Study in Scarlet? Is it just a fashionable place or a queer-coded message? According to Queer London: Perils and Pleasures in the Sexual Metropolis, 1918-1957 by Matt Houlbrook,

In the evening, what Muirhead’s Blue Guide described as “London’s most fashionable resort for afternoon tea” became somewhere to celebrate masculine beauty. The Criterion had been what George Ives called “a great centre for inverts” since around 1905.

Watson and Stamford met there about a quarter of a century earlier. Their meeting happened at a quite an early hour too as Watson writes:

In the exuberance of my joy, I asked him to lunch with me at the Holborn, and we started off together in a hansom.

From the above it can be concluded that Watson visited the Criterion for fancy food and fancy furnishings rather than in search of a one night stand. The Holborn is another fancy restaurant which clearly shows that Watson has expensive tastes. By his own admission, Watson lived beyond his means, and eventually because of that he found himself in the need of a flatmate.


(The Criterion and the Holborn)

Now to other places he and Holmes frequented later. Here are some excerpts from London and the Culture of Homosexuality 1885-1914 by Matt Cook:

The West End was an obvious area for sensual experimentation and adventure.

- Because of their luxury and cosmopolitanism the new hotels [like the Savoy and the Ritz] were considered anti-domestic and even inappropriate for families;

- Trains and grand new stations allowed for chance meetings and anonymous sex, and the buses and trams presented similar opportunities;

- The opportunities provided by the crowded streets, toilets, parks, stations and trams could be taken up casually by men not initiated into a subculture. Despite Casement’s prolific sexual adventuring in the area, for example, he seems to have been entirely unaware of the associations of particular pubs, hotels, and theatres... Wilde was famously associated with Café Royale, at the south end of Regent Street... The Albermarle and Savoy Hotels were both named in the Wilde trials;

- This association developed further with the expansion of theatre-land;

- Sport clubs and swimming pools were other possible forums;

- The British Museum, and especially the statue galleries, [became] an important site in the city for many men. It was a place where it was legitimate to look at sculptures of naked men;

- The clubs and bachelor chambers in Pall Mall and St James’ formed a continuation of homosocial worlds of public school and university;

- Bachelors living in city centre flats featured frequently in court cases involving homosexual activity;

- The single bohemian and dandy similarly attracted suspicion, especially after the Wilde trials. The adjective “bohemian” cropped up repeatedly during his trials.

According to the book, numerous urban public places provided opportunities for queer men to seek each other out because such places attracted a great number of people. Genius, isn’t it? On the one hand, everything in Holmes and Watson’s lifestyle cries out “queer”, but on the other, they could visit all those places for purely innocuous reasons.

It should be also noted that all descriptions of Holmes as a “bohemian” predate 1895. Neither he nor Watson is described so after The Final Problem (1893).

Still, it doesn’t really matter whether queer-coding in the canon was intentional or not. I tend to agree with an opinion that ACD drew Holmes’ traits from the men he admired, some of whom were queer. So queer-coding is there, and that’s a fact.

Comments

[earthspirits]

A fascinating post. I do agree the subtext is definitely there in the canon stories (but most especially the earlier ones).

[mightymads]

The later ones have it too :)

"Quick, man, if you love me" in the Dying Detective, Holmes calls Watson "blithe boy" in His Last Bow, and of course the Three Garridebs, remembering just off the top of my head.

[earthspirits]

Good to know! And those endearments from Holmes are quite lovely. :)

[mightymads]

I’m glad you found the info interesting! When I came across all those references about the Criterion and further implications that Watson and Stamford were visiting it like a gay bar, somehow I thought it to be rather far-fetched, despite shipping Holmes/Watson. So I finally got my hands on those two books to sort things out for myself.