Shakespeare's Globe Theatre 
New Globe Walk SE1
Tel: 020 7902 1500
The Globe Theatre Tour provides an engaging and informed introduction to the theatre of Shakespeare's time and the London where he lived and worked, while the exhibition brings to life every aspect of his work using a combination of modern technology and traditional crafts. There are displays of costume, musical instruments and visitors can even "edit" Shakespeare on computer.
The first Globe Theatre burnt down in 1613 and this perfectly reconstructed replacement is just 200 yards from the original.
The First Globe Theatre Burnt Down and Rebuilt
The Reverend Thomas Lorkin writes from London to Sir Thomas Puckering
under the date of June 30, 1613:
No longer since than yesterday, while Burbage's company were
acting at the Globe the play of Henry VIII, and there
shooting off certain chambers in way of triumph, the fire
catched and fastened upon the thatch of the house, and there
burned so furiously, as it consumed the whole house, all in
less than two hours, the people having enough to do to save
themselves.
The New Globe, like its predecessor, was built of timber, and on the same site--indeed the carpenters made use of the old foundation, which seems not to have been seriously injured. In a "return" of 1634, preserved at St. Saviour's, we read: "The Globe playhouse, near Maid Lane, built by the company of players, with a dwelling house thereto adjoining, built with timber, about 20 years past, upon an old foundation." In spite of the use made of the old foundation, the new structure was unquestionably larger than the First Globe; Marmion, in the Prologue to Holland's Leaguer, acted at Salisbury Court in 1634, speaks of "the vastness of the Globe," and Shirley, in the Prologue to Rosania, applies the adjective "vast" to the building. Moreover, the builders had "the wit," as Jonson tells us, "to cover it with tiles."
With this New Globe Shakespeare had little to do, for his career as a
playwright had been run, and probably he had already retired from acting. Time, indeed, was beginning to thin out the little band of friends who had initiated and made famous the Globe organization. Thomas Pope had died in 1603, Augustine Phillips in 1605, William Slye in 1608, and, just a few months after the opening of the new playhouse, William Osteler, who had been admitted to the partnership in 1611.
Shakespeare's Globe is a working theatre and the availability of the tours and the exhibition can vary throughout the year. During an afternoon in the theatre season, tours visit the nearby Rose Theatre site.
Admission: GBP 8.50 (adults), GBP 7.00 (concessions) GBP 24.00 (family)
Open: 10am-5pm daily (October- April, closed 24 and 25 December) and
9am-12.00 noon daily (May-September)
Tube: ( Underground ) Mansion House, London Bridge. Riverboat:
Bankside Pier.
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In the middle ages, Bankside was home to the notorious "stews" (brothels) - these were finally closed in the mid-16th century and replaced by other amusements; notably bear and bull baiting and theatre. Because it was close to the City but not controlled by it, Bankside became London's main theatre district after the puritanical City had expelled all theatres from within the City wall because they considered them to be "immoral. |
