World’s first site-specific Sherlock Holmes experience opens with a murder mystery in Bugis, Singapore

SINGAPORE – Fictional detective Sherlock Holmes’ famed 221B Baker Street residence has opened a consultancy outpost on 221B Bugis Street.

It is now home to the world’s first site-specific Sherlock Holmes experience, opening on Aug 21, where visitors help solve the case of a bloody murder that takes place in Bugis’ malls.

A Study In Red: The Official Sherlock Experience is Singaporean gaming studio Hidden’s adaptation of British writer Arthur Conan Doyle’s first novel A Study In Scarlet (1887), except that it now takes place in storied Bugis and the world of gangs and sex work.

On premiering the work in Bugis ahead of even London’s Baker Street, Hidden’s co-founder Lim Yee Hung, 40, says: “It’s been sanitised – but it’s always been edgy, this place.”

Up to five players will be dropped into a group chat with the world’s most famous detective and sent on a nearly two-hour mission around three of Bugis’ malls to look for clues and solve puzzles.

Suitable for players aged 13 and above, this detective mystery will put one’s knowledge of Asian weapons and the neighbourhood’s history to the test. It requires players to take along only their own phone.

Thanks to its source material and the creators’ attempts to keep the characters true to Doyle’s novels, the experience can feel a little text-heavy, although there are plenty of Easter eggs for fans.

Lim says the experience will gradually evolve and also take in visitor feedback and incorporate new elements.

Players have to report clues from physical “crime scenes” to the detective via text and complete tasks. They can also interact with shopkeepers in the Bugis precinct and receive discount codes at participating food and beverage stores.

After the mystery is solved, players receive game merchandise, including a specially produced Sherlock Holmes notebook. It is also available for sale at $21 at a Victorian-themed gift shop.

Lim, a devoted Sherlockian who has read all of Doyle’s stories about the detective, flew to London in March 2026 to meet the estate and pitch the experience. In the end, Hidden beat even Britain-based companies to secure the exclusive licence from The Conan Doyle Estate for this specific format.

The 17-strong company is led by founders Lim, Loh Jun Wei and Shawn Tan. This is the second licence Hidden has secured, after Hasbro’s Monopoly – a live experience which boasts more than 1,000 players monthly.

More than the British crime drama Sherlock (2010 to 2017) or the 2009 Hollywood film Sherlock Holmes, Lim was inspired by the 2018 Japanese TV series Miss Sherlock, a female-led story set in Tokyo.

He says: “It’s very Japanese – with kabuki and horror – but still managed to get the essence of Sherlock.”

His winning pitch to the estate was to localise the Sherlock Holmes experience to the world, drawing on his experience of attracting more than 120,000 unique players in Singapore and adapting the board game Monopoly to a live experience in Katong, Chinatown and Clarke Quay.

All of his Monopoly experiences have already become profitable, he says, and he expects his six-figure investment in A Study In Red to be in the black too.

Tim Hubbard, head of global licensing for The Conan Doyle Estate, tells The Straits Times that the team’s passion, knowledge and experience localising stories instilled confidence in the estate, adding: “What makes and keeps the Sherlock Holmes stories so relevant today is not the caricature of a detective with a magnifying glass, a pipe and a deerstalker in a tweed cape. It is the attention to the layers of detail and character-building Sir Arthur pioneered.”

Plans are already under way for a 2027 opening in London, but Hidden is also aiming to bring the experience to neighbourhoods in Tokyo and Melbourne, and to work with local storytellers to localise the experience.

Depending on the reception of the world premiere in Singapore, Lim also has plans to offer more experiences in different Singapore neighbourhoods – teasing that he wants to localise the famous Reichenbach Falls scene to either the waterfall at Gardens by the Bay or Jewel Changi Airport.

Acknowledging that it is difficult for Singapore to export its literary or pop cultural figures, he says that Singaporean creatives can offer something unique to global cultural estates and create location-based experiences as trustworthy and cosmopolitan middlemen.

Referencing Singapore’s hosting of the 2018 Trump-Kim summit, he says: “We are more the glue than the star.”

Having spent 15 years in Britain, he adds that Singaporeans have high expectations for such experiences.

“If you can entertain Singaporeans, you can entertain anybody. We are not easy to entertain – we demand a lot, which is good for a company trying to learn how to do things.”

While he says that he is in talks to acquire other intellectual property licences from Japan, the long-term goal is also to prove that Singapore can be a global creative force. When pitching globally to estates, he still frequently encounters doubts and pushback that Singapore is too “boring” to execute these experiences.

His moonshot experience is to be able to export a creative figure from Singapore that can stand alongside legends like Sherlock Holmes.

“My dream will be something original from Singapore,” he says.

Book It/A Study In Red: The Official Sherlock Experience

Where: Starting point at 02-141 Bugis Street, 261 Victoria Street
When: Opens Aug 21, 10am to 9.30pm daily
Admission: $39 (weekends and public holidays) and $29 (weekdays) for adults; $19 for students
Info: www.officialsherlockexperience.com