Globe (London)

• Theatre ID
  3380
• Built / Converted
  1599
• Current state
  Demolished
• Current use
  demolished
• Address
  Park Street (under Anchor Terrace and Anchor Terrace car park), Southwark, London, SE1, England

Details

The first Globe, built by James Burbage’s sons and a partnership of players, including William Shakespeare, was in direct descent from the Theatre (q.v.). The timbers of the Shoreditch house were shipped from Shoreditch and re-erected on Bankside. Shakespeare’s major tragedies were written for and performed in the Globe, a polygonal, timber-framed and thatch-roofed structure with an open yard, tiers of galleries, a tiring house and apron stage with an elaborate canopy or ‘shadow’. From 1608 to 1642 the company also occupied Burbage’s (indoor) Blackfriars Theatre, an experience which must have had a powerful influence on playing and production methods in both houses. In 1613 a fire broke out as a result from smouldering tampin (or stoppel) from a cannon routinely discharged during a performance of Henry VIII. It lodged in the thatch and the theatre was destroyed, happily without loss of life. The second Globe, built with Royal patronage, rose off the foundations of the first, but almost certainly represented a major advance in design terms. Apart from Hollar’s 1647 ‘Long View’ (and a number of less reliable records) little was known of the precise form and dimensions of the Globe until a limited excavation took place in 1989. It is reasonably certain that substantial physical evidence remains buried beneath Anchor Terrace and possibly under Southwark Bridge Road. The modern reconstruction of the Shakespeare Globe is described elsewhere (Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, q.v.).

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• Events
  • 1599 Design/Construction:
    • Peter Streete (carpenter) for James Burbage - Architect
  • 1599 Owner/Management: Richard & Cuthbert Burbage and members of the Lord Chamberlain’s Company (later known as the King’s Men)
  • 1614 Owner/Management: The Burbages and other members of the King’s Men
• Capacities
  • Later: Second Globe reputedly 3000
• Listings
  • Grade Scheduled Ancient Monument - The site is a scheduled ancient monument
• Unreliable anecdotes
  The long-argued view that the Globe was on the north side of Park Street was effectively demolished by W W Braines in the 1920s. His identification of the site was confirmed beyond doubt by the 1989 excavation.