The Baker Street Irregulars

"They can go everywhere, see everything, overhear everyone..."

The Baker Street Irregulars is a group of young street Arabs recruited by Basil of Baker Street to assist him in many specific cases, performing various missions, ferreting London for clues, and acquiring access to places where the detective could not go himself. There is an unorthodox discipline among them, despite their dirty and ragged exteriors, for they would instantly draw up in line, like many disreputable statuettes, and stand with expectant faces as they salute their dear mentor. They strive for organization. "Eyes quick, ears sharp," quips the detective to his little recruits. The Irregulars are eager, mischievous, street-wise, sharp, efficient, and are far too wise to hold stated meetings, which would belie their indoctrinated irregularity. From the left, starting at the first row:

Huggins - This flamboyant young leader of the group is the tallest, the oldest, and certainly the cleverest of the Irregulars. Half-brother to Gilly, he is the delight of the London passers-by and the darling of the urbane poor. Restlessly energetic and highly resourceful, ever-smiling youth is the most exceptional crowd-pleaser as a master of sleight-of-hand, a sidewalk trickster, street hustler, and a savvy magician. A compulsive kleptomaniac and a true puckish prince of pick-pocketing who takes a delight in pocket-watches. Adventurous as well as audacious, dramatic, perceptive, agile, mischievously playful, delightfully witty, exceedingly inventive, and far too clever for his own good, this razzle-dazzle fast-talker can remorselessly con anything out of anyone with a charismatic flicker of an eyelid. This flirtatious, violaceous-eyed charmer is not nearly as innocent as his fellow Irregulars and is quickly maturing into a quite a playboy, turning many maiden heads his direction despite his apparent juvenility. He secures an immense number of connections and allies within London's seedy underworld, which made him quintessential as an informant for Mr. Basil, as well as a leader for the Irregulars. A loyal and respected commander, a benevolent caregiver, and wise and valued friend to everyone of his mates that would drop and push everything aside to help his mates with anything at anytime at anyplace!

Norwood - Hyperactive, sprightly, and prankish, he is "the mute who speaks without uttering a word." He does not know his parentage or what happened to them, he does have a brief recollection of being in a religious destitute orphanage before he was supposedly got evicted on the streets, along with a hundred of other children, after it went bankrupted. Norwood defended himself from pauperism as a self-taught entrepreneur; he became a junk dealer, match seller, musician, mime, and juggling performer, usually staged his acts in public London parks. With a dusty coat and titian-plaid scarf, this cherub-faced, happy-go-lucky imp is constantly smiling, smirking, grinning, laughing silently, falling over, running, and dancing about in every direction as he dazzles gleeful and daffy expressions with his large, screwball eyes and equally screwy actions, pointing and laughing even more! He is also an avaricious pack rat, er...mouse, who has pockets unerringly full of an amazing array of surprises. One could only guess what would come in or out of his cavernous sleeves. He is a definitive comedian and a practical joker of incredible proportions with an ethereal, other-worldly charisma, an innate knack for unpredictability, and a bright, sincere, sweet-natured humour. He is a serendipitous skirt-chaser, with a mad grin and a lolling tongue, but what he does after he caught one is debatable, as he was the epitome of childish innocence and gullibility. Yet with his passion for rebelliousness and unconventionality, he is fairly shy and is easily embarrassed. Being vocally wordless does not hinder or restrict him, by his whole style and nature so much the most deeply silent, but he distinguishes himself through pantomime. From the sunrise to sunset, he can respond and correspond in volumes as he is dependent almost entirely upon his use of expressions, whistles, winks, grunts, groans, yips, yaps, waves, gestures, signs, visuals, and his misshapen-faced "gookie." With the blustering toots and rowdy honks of his rubber-bulbed bicycle-horn and his strange "soap-bubble" clarinet, Norwood speaks from his heart, soul, and spirit out of silence.

Livanov - His farming village was caught in the middle of political conflicts that was originally meant to "save the people" of Russia. His village had yet to recover from the nasty tear-away between the tyrannical landlords and their feudalist power over the impoverished serfs, which were effected by the emancipation, giving land and limited freedom to the peasantry, but they would not find peace anytime soon. The dangerously radical Narodniks were unable to influence its Marxist intelligentsia in the cities and moved to the villages in an attempt to teach their "moral" imperative to revolt against the monarchy. The Tsarists, however, found such ideals unwelcoming and had the villages crushed by the Okhranka Secret Police. Livanov fled with his family, as refuges, escaping his once-peaceful country for the smog-ridden streets of London and lost his way; he is the lone survivor of his family, but found another one with the Irregulars. As the wise, little philosopher of the group, he can quip a maxim for every task and an axiom for every answer. Bashful, benevolent, sympathetic, complaisant, and self-conscious, he is the pacifist and peacemaker, detesting all quarrels and hostilities of any kind; he separates, appeases, and compromises. He often has to be guided by the others since he is still adjusting to English ways, language, and technology the likes he never seen before.

Cushing - He is an aspiring cosmopolite of the group. This polite little gent with the large handkerchief loves to indulge his characteristic love for the finer things in life. Early on, Cushing made a living by pennies-in-a-hat jobs: He drew and sketched beautiful chalk drawings on sidewalks, and sold scarves and handkerchiefs, which he painted to the passers-by in the busiest areas of the metropolitan. With his clipped, eloquent, and ultra-civilised delivery of voice, Cushing carries himself with grace and gentility, sustaining impeccable manners, a polished style, a cool politeness, with the heart of an Arthurian knight and the passion of Cavalier poet. Always happy to lend a helping hand to a friend or a stranger, he is generous, congenial, compassionate, sincere, eloquent, cheerful, and blindly optimistic. He is a proficient charmer who could sweet-talk his way into about everything! Cushing sees the world through a pair of rose-tinted speckles: he is an idealist, an utopist, a hopeless daydreamer, and an incurable romantic, he longs for storybook "happily ever afters" everywhere he steps.

Keaton - He is the shyest and the quietest member for he has little to say about anything — even Norwood, with all his whistles and toots, is louder than Keaton. A child of the Vaudeville music-hall footlights of Stomp and Strand, he joined his parents as the youngest member of the Three Keatons, as he crawled on stage at eight months. And, by the age of two, he was a star. Night after night, he routinely performed pratfalls and stunts as he was tripped over objects, stumbled down a flight of stairs, thrown across the stage, occasionally into the guffawing audience as well, and trampled on as a type of theatrical punch-bag, landing either on his top of his head or simply on "a frozen granite face," and by the finale, he bowed to the audience miraculously uninjured. The ever-hapless and long-suffering scapegoat constantly discovers himself in constant, unintentional trouble for being simply at the wrong place at the wrong time. With all the innocent mishaps and mayhems that befall him, he is blessed with an incredible gift of listless "blind luck," and oftentimes finds himself with only a mulish imperturbability and a disoriented memory of events. Tender, devoted, magnanimous, forgetful, and hap-hazardously reckless and accident-prone to a fault, this pint-sized, dreamy-eyed Pierrot could be a dauntless and courageous daredevil when need be, assuming that running away from the situation like a frighten jackrabbit failed as the first option. He plays the world surrounding him as he knows best, a well-timed, fast-paced comedy, juggling the wildest of circumstances with an awe-inspiring sort of patience, and a reflexive power to endure, as he looked on as the twists of fateful calamities ensues with an unflappably reaction and a bewildered blink. He fosters a crush on Gilly — which is obvious to everyone but Gilly.

Gilly - The lone girl of the group, she is the second-in-command of the Irregulars as Huggins' younger half-sister, Gillette, or more commonly known as "Gilly." She stormed, early on, the locals as a type of holy terror and hoydenish troublemaker, and later as a three-time champion bare-knuckled pugilist. Gilly is a vivacious little tomboy and, in many ways, self-succeeds herself as the vigilant warden and lieutenant of the group. She keeps an assiduous eye on the protection of each member of the Irregulars and appropriates each into a heterodox uniformity of order and regulation, parallel to that of a drill serjeant, and has no trouble in giving a clinched-fisted punch when they are due. Cynical, candid, suspicious, stubborn, resourceful, smart-mouthed, temperamental, bumptious, and often quarrelsome, she may not be the pleasantest companion to be around, as she spills out a countless array of acidic scurrility, and could be described as unfeeling and aloof. Yet, in truth, she simply has no patience for all the trivial niceties and genteel courtesies. She concludes that such things are unnecessary and regularly prevaricate one's conversation for what should be direct and to the point, without the fluf and confusion. She remarks a trenchant irritability against inner falseness and self-deception. Breviloquence is key to her nature and one needs swallow her causal rudeness and belligerence without personal offence, as Gilly has proven herself the most self-sacrificing, most steadfast, most valiant, and most faithful of friends.

Rowe - Born upon the narrow streets of Spitalsfield, the most concentrated hub of the Jewish population in London's East End, Rowe recalls the amount of his family as himself and his elderly uncle. They were exceedingly poor but Rowe never had an idea of how poor: He and his uncle sold chocolate bars with almond nuts on a pushcart. When they had a good day, they ate meat for supper; when they had a bad day, they ate chocolate bars with almond nuts. The bad days were a perk in those times. However, his uncle was ill and was forced into a mental institution and left little child completely alone until he found the Irregulars. Little Rowe is a sprightly, rather high-strung, if not naïve, believer of tall-tales, myths, conspiracies, folklore, vampyres, werewolves, and all things that go bump in the night. He is perhaps the most excitable member of the Irregulars, mainly due to the fact that he is also the most paranoid! He is wildly imaginative and ready to hear the next fanciful story. He constantly carries with him small bunch of wolves-bane, a packet of salt, a bulb of garlic, cross, and a Magen David — in case of any Jewish vampyres. It never hurts to be prepared!

Models - Jeremy Brett (né Huggins), Eille Norwood, Vasili Livanov, Peter Cushing, Buster Keaton, William Gillette, Nicholas Rowe – each member of the Baker Street Irregulars is modelled and named after a memorable Holmes actor.

Medium - Col-erase blue.

Baker Street Irregulars © Diane N. Tran.