Discovery of Shakespeare’s London home location
A chance find in a London archive has allowed a researcher to pinpoint the exact location of William Shakespeare’s London home for the first time, reports BritPanorama.
It had long been known that the playwright owned a house in the Blackfriars, a 13th-century Dominican friary, and it was thought to have been located near the gatehouse. However, the new discovery reveals its exact location, size, and layout, as well as what kind of buildings would have surrounded it, according to Lucy Munro, Professor of Shakespeare and Early Modern Literature at King’s College London.
Munro explained that the information came to light when she discovered a plan of the district from 1668 during her research on local playhouses at the London Archives. “It was a really pleasant surprise,” she said.
After reviewing the plan against descriptions of the house in existing scholarship, Munro realized she had found definitive proof of its location and layout. “It would have been sort of L-shaped, with part of it going over the gatehouse,” she noted, adding that the plan shows the property sitting atop the gatehouse, alongside neighboring buildings like the Sign of the Cock Tavern.
“It’s not huge, but it’s relatively substantial,” she stated. “It was large enough to be subdivided into two houses at some point.” When Shakespeare purchased the house in 1613, Blackfriars was a prestigious area, though it became increasingly socially mixed over time, as Munro pointed out.
She remarked, “There are lots of gentry in the area, but there are also increasingly tradespeople living in the area.” The discovery also provides new insights into Shakespeare’s later life, particularly in the years leading up to his death in 1616 at age 52.
This find challenges the prevailing belief that he retired to his hometown of Stratford-upon-Avon after the Globe playhouse burned down in June 1613. “It’s sometimes been conjectured that he kind of backs out at the point when the Globe burns down, but then we know that he’s still writing plays in the period following the Globe fire,” Munro explained, referencing his collaboration with playwright John Fletcher on “The Two Noble Kinsmen.”
Additionally, Munro questions the idea that Shakespeare acquired the Blackfriars property purely for financial gain. “If he was just buying the property as an investment, there were lots of parts of London where he could have bought it,” she said, indicating that the location close to the Globe Playhouse suggests continued engagement with his professional life in London.
“He’s not the isolated genius sitting in an attic. He’s somebody who’s collaborating with other playwrights. He’s somebody who owns shares in playhouses,” Munro added, suggesting that this discovery offers a fresh perspective on Shakespeare’s involvement in London’s theatrical scene.
More broadly, Munro believes this find highlights that there is still much to learn about Britain’s most famous playwright. “I think there’s sometimes an assumption with things relating to Shakespeare biography that everything’s been gone over again and again,” she noted, pointing out that her research, set to be published in the Times Literary Supplement on April 17, will contribute significantly to the ongoing scholarship.
Will Tosh, Director of Education at Shakespeare’s Globe, remarked that Munro had made a “fantastic discovery,” emphasizing that it provides a dazzling new understanding of Shakespeare as a London writer. “She’s helped us to understand how much the city meant to our greatest ever dramatist, as a professional and personal home,” he stated.
