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The famous but fictitious detective created by Arthur Conan Doyle first appeared in 1891. He still gets regular fan mail sent to his equally fictitious address of 221b Baker Street (the museum is next to No. 239).

The great Victorian novelist and social campaigner (1812–70) lived in Doughty Street for two years from 1837. The house is his only surviving London home, and he thought it “a frightfully first-class family mansion, involving awful responsibilities” (see Charles Dickens Museum).

“When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life,” said Dr Samuel Johnson (1709–84). He lived in the City from 1748 to 1759 and much of his famous dictionary was compiled here, with six copyists working in the garrett. His companion James Boswell reported on the social comings and goings in the house.

The London-born Romantic poet (1795–1821) lived in Hampstead from 1818 to 1820 before leaving for Italy to try to cure his fatal tuberculosis. After falling in love with his neighbour’s daughter, Fanny Brawne, he wrote his famous and beautifulOde to a Nightingale in the garden (see Keats House).

The Viennese founder of psychoanalysis (1856–1939) spent the last year of his life in a north London house. A Jew, he had fled the Nazis, bringing his celebrated couch with him (see Freud Museum).

Yorkshire-born Frederick Leighton (1830–96) was the most successful painter in Victorian London and president of the Royal Academy. He had this exotic house built for him in 1899.

The Scottish historian and essayist Thomas Carlyle, famous for his history of the French Revolution, lived in London from 1834.

Charles Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (1769–1852), lived at Apsley House, which has the unique address of No. 1 London, following his victories in the Napoleonic Wars.

The great German-born composer first visited London in 1710 and settled here permanently in 1712.

The great painter of London life (1697–1764, see Tate Britain) was used to the gritty life of the city and called his house near Chiswick “a little country box by the Thames”.