What fictional London address inspired House M.D.’s apartment number?

House M.D.’s apartment number, 221B, was inspired by 221B Baker Street, Sherlock Holmes’s fictional London address.

The reference reflects the show’s deliberate connection between Gregory House and Sherlock Holmes. Both characters are brilliant investigators who use observation and deduction, resist ordinary social expectations, and have a close friend modeled in part on Dr. Watson. House’s surname also echoes Holmes’s, and Wilson serves as the most visible parallel to Watson.

In the series, House is associated with apartment 221B, while the Baker Street address belongs to Holmes in Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories. The television drama relocates the reference into a modern American medical setting rather than placing House in London.

A common error is to answer simply “Baker Street.” The complete Holmes address is 221B Baker Street, and that full phrase identifies the literary source of the apartment-number homage.