Mrs. Hudson

The landlady of 221B Baker Street.

Mrs Hudson is the landlady of 221B Baker Street, the London house where Sherlock Holmes lives, in Arthur Conan Doyle's novels and short stories.

Quick Facts

Series: Sherlock Holmes
First: A Study in Scarlet (1887)
Last: "The Adventure of the Three Garridebs" (1924)
Creator: Arthur Conan Doyle
Occupation: Landlady
Nationality: British

Facts from the source article.

Background

She appears or is mentioned in many of the stories, but her appearances are usually brief and little is told about her; adaptations in film and television have given her a much larger part. Holmes once says she has as good an idea of breakfast as a Scotchwoman, which some readers take to mean she is Scottish.

The landlady of 221B is not named in the first story, A Study in Scarlet, and is first called Mrs. Hudson in The Sign of the Four. In A Scandal in Bohemia Holmes calls her Mrs. Turner instead, which has caused much speculation among fans. Some commentators identify her with the Martha of His Last Bow.

In The Adventure of the Empty House, Holmes's return three years after his supposed death throws her into violent hysterics. She then helps him by moving a bust of Holmes every quarter of an hour to fool the sniper Colonel Sebastian Moran, and afterwards hands Holmes the bullet.

The stories never mention a husband, and she may never have married, since "Mrs." was a respectful title for senior domestic staff in the Victorian era.