Erection date: 3/1/1953
This plaque commemorates the historic meeting early in 1881 at the original Criterion Long Bar, of Dr Stamford and Dr John H. Watson which led to the introduction of Dr Watson to Mr Sherlock Holmes.
{Below is a small rectangular plaque, illegible in the photo, but it probably names the erector of the plaque, the Tokio Sherlock Holmes Society.}
The presence of Sherlock Holmes at this unveiling is rather misleading since he was not present at the event commemorated. In Conan Doyle's story Watson met the go-between Dr Stamford at the Criterion and was taken by him to Barts and it is there that the famous meeting took place.
Our picture source, Alamy, (incorrectly) captions the photo: "English actor Carleton Hobbs, dressed as Sherlock Holmes, with ex-Chief Inspector Fabian, of Scotland Yard, witnesses the unveiling of a plaque recording his character's meeting with Dr Watson at the long bar at the Criterion Restaurant in Piccadilly Circus, London, in 1851 {sic}. The plaque is the gift of the Tokio Sherlock Holmes Society."
Other photos at Alamy show Sherlock departing in a horse-drawn hansom cab - so it was quite an event.
The Arthur Conan Doyle Encylopedia has a video showing Sherlock arriving and unveiling the plaque, and informs "The plaque was an idea of Mr. Richard Hughes, an Australian sherlockian (resident in Tokyo), and offered by the Tokyo branch of The Baker Street Irregulars."
In 1953 when this plaque was unveiled the radio Sherlock Holmes series, that was to run for a massive 75 episodes, was in its first year; Carleton Hobbs was a little-known actor with only a few minor credits to his name; Fabian had published his book 3 years previously, and it would be dramatised by the BBC, beginning the following year.
Site: Holmes & Watson - Criterion (2 memorials)
W1, 224 Piccadilly, 224, Criterion Restaurant
The Criterion Restaurant is on the ground floor with the entrance at the left of our photo.
The meeting at the Criterion took place on New Year's Day in 1881, 72 years and 2 days before the first, lost, plaque was erected. The current plaque, erected to mark the centenary of the meeting, is inside, on the wall to the right, before the tables begin. It was brought to our attention by Londonist.
The meeting at the Criterion is described in the first Sherlock Holmes story "A Study in Scarlett" published in 1887. See the plaque at Barts Hospital for the actual meeting of Holmes and Watson.
