LONDON — Back before the capital’s safety was managed by a cadre of baton-wielding bobbies and efficient closed-circuit television cameras, there was one man who could track down the nastiest of criminals.

After a visit to the Sherlock Holmes Museum, where guests can peek into the Victorian world of Holmes and his sidekick, Watson, there’s a pub not far afoot where patrons can further explore the murky London underworld — or at least what’s left of it.

The Sherlock Holmes pub is just a block south of Trafalgar Square, home to Nelson’s Column and the National Gallery, both of which were as dominant in the London skyline in Holmes’ era as they are today.

But it’s also just a block north of the River Thames, which was not the tourist hot spot contemporary visitors recognize.

Back around the turn of the 20th century, when Holmes and Watson scoured the city for crooks, sneaks, thieves and bandits, the riverside was a breeding ground of vice and decadence.

Maybe that’s why Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, author of the Holmes anthology, came to stay in the hotel that occupied the building now home to the pub bearing his name, according to bar staff.

Back in the era of horse-drawn carriages, gas-powered street lamps and unchallenged street crime, the Northumberland Arms Hotel welcomed Doyle on several visits to the capital. In fact, the hotel is featured in one of Holmes’ most famous tales, “The Hound of the Baskervilles.”

It is there that the protagonist stayed and there as well that Holmes and Watson met in the pursuit of the criminal. The pub today is filled with wall-to-wall Holmes memorabilia and just enough ambience of the old hotel to give visitors a feel of the Victorian London found in the Holmes stories.

There is also a mock sitting room fashioned after the room where Holmes and Watson unraveled their mysteries. All told, it’s an unconventional pub that succeeds in capitalizing on its unique link to fictional history.

See previous After Hours reviews here.