Holmes and Watson travel by train to Leatherhead to reach the fictional Stoke Moran. The railway station at Leatherhead opened in 1859. 

Arthur Conan Doyle was born on May 22, 1859 at 11 Picardy Place in Edinburgh, Scotland.  Doyle's birthplace was demolished in 1969/70. Today at status of Sherlock Holmes stands opposite his birthplace. 

Pamela Colman Smith's home, The Bolton's, 14 Millborne Grover, Chelsea, was the location of her studio and workplace. Here she produced The Green Sheaf (1903-1904), a self-published little magazine that included hand-coloured illustrations, possibly made with the assistance of students in The Green Sheaf School of Hand Colouring, which she conducted on the premises.. As Arthur Ransome recalls in Bohemia in London, her flat was also the gathering place for an ecclectic group of actors, musicians, artists and writers, who attended her "at homes." 

Laurence and Clemence Housman's shared home at 1 Pembroke Cottage Edwardes Square, just off Kensington High Street, had previously been the residence of artist William Rothenstein, who was also a member of the little magazine community. Here the Housman siblings worked on a number of collaborative projects, including both creating wood-engraved illustrations cut by Clemence and designed by Laurence, and contributing to the contemporary  movement for women's siuffrage.