From Michael JG Meathook: London's hidden treasure
"There is nothing new in London," Sherlock Holmes complained to me one evening. "Can it really be that so little has changed in three years?"
I had come to spend the night at Baker Street, an increasingly common occurrence since Holmes's return to London a few months previous. Following the death of my dear wife, I had found my house in Kensington far too large and lonely for one person, and Holmes had hinted several times that I should sell up and move back into 221B.
"I find that hard to believe," I answered him absent-mindedly, for I was casting an eye over one of my medical journals. "Only yesterday I walked past a new restaurant on the Strand."
I heard more than saw the roll of Holmes's eyes as he answered acerbically, "That is hardly worth noting Watson. I hoped for something more... significant."
A thought came into my mind then and I looked up from my journal with a smile. "Significant?"
He caught my smug look. "Have you thought of something then?"
"Perhaps," was my enigmatic reply, which I knew was likely to drive him insane. "Accompany me on my rounds in Kentish Town tomorrow and I believe I may have just the thing for you."
"Good god!"
I laughed aloud, for it really did take a great deal to shock my friend. Shocked he certainly was, eyes almost bulging out of his head as he beheld the creature that loomed above us.
"Holmes, meet Zara."
"What in heaven is a giraffe doing here?" he enquired faintly, and I was impressed that he recognised the species. There was a time, after all, where he didn't understand the basic movements of the solar system. "In the middle of London?"
"The owner of this pub-" I gestured to the sign that hung above the entrance, which read The Pineapple. "-offered to assist the London Zoo when Zara was born. Some issues with the mother I believe. The intention was for her to be returned one day, but she rather likes it here."
Zara seemed to hear what I was saying, for she swung her long neck down to bend towards us from behind the pub's fence. Holmes shook his head in disbelief.
"Very well, Watson, you have proven your point. Perhaps London still holds hidden treasures after all..."
A/N This is based on true fact! There really was a giraffe based at the Pineapple in Kentish Town.