What is the name of Sherlock Holmes’s informal street network of child informants?

Sherlock Holmes’s informal street network of child informants is called the Baker Street Irregulars.

The group appears in Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories as a band of working-class London boys whom Holmes employs to search streets, observe people and gather information. Their familiarity with the city and their ability to move unnoticed make them useful where a prominent adult detective might attract attention.

The Baker Street Irregulars are especially important in The Sign of the Four, where Holmes sends them to search for the missing steam launch Aurora. Holmes pays them for their services, and their leader is sometimes identified as Wiggins. Their work shows that Holmes’s investigations rely not only on laboratory analysis but also on a broad human intelligence network.

They are often confused with the Bow Street Runners, a real historical law-enforcement group that operated in London. The Baker Street Irregulars are fictional associates of Holmes, while the later literary society using the same name is a separate fan organisation founded in the United States.