Feature: History - The archaeology team who uncovered the remains of Shakespeare’s first theatre

Published: 29 July 2010
by DAN CARRIER

IT was where William Shakespeare’s immortal opening lines, “Two households, both alike in dignity, in fair Verona, where we lay our scene,” were first uttered on a stage.

But for centuries, the exact whereabouts of the theatre that some of the Bard’s works were first performed in has been a mystery – until the Tower Theatre Company began searching for a new home. 

And by a remarkable coincidence, the derelict  Shoreditch warehouse in New Inn Yard, off Old Street, that they chose for their new base revealed a long-lost secret when archaeologists began scraping away at the foundations.

The team, based at the Museum of London, found the remains of what was the capital’s first purpose-built theatre – and where some of Shakespeare’s best-known works were first performed.

Archaeologist Heather Knight has led the dig and her work has uncovered evidence of where the stage once was, and the cheap stalls where punters paid a penny to stand.

She said: “There was some previous evidence pointing to the area where the theatre was – a few legal documents – but no concrete proof.”

The uncovering of 16th-century foundations changed all that.

“As Shoreditch got bigger the exact location was lost – and now we can be sure of where it is,” said Ms Knight

Brick experts have dated the still-intact masonry and, using other techniques, they have confirmed their suspicions.

Ms Knight said: “This find has the power to take you back 400 years, when this was the ‘Suburb of Sin’. 

“It was the place Londoners could indulge in the types of pastimes the city fathers disapproved of – hence it being the site of the first Shakespearean theatre.”

Tower Theatre patron Sir Ian McKellen, who is backing a fund-raising drive to find £3million to complete the new-build, said: “For an actor, this must be one of the most exciting places in the country. Standing on the very ground where Shakespeare worked is an enormous thrill.”

He added that the Tower Theatre – made up of non-professional actors who have been moving between temporary rented performance spaces for more than five years while they searched for their new home – are the perfect new owners of such a site. 

In a further twist, it emerged that the fates of the two theatres are remarkably similar. 

The Tower Theatre were evicted from their home of seven decades in 2003 when the lease on the building expired. The original builder of the Shakespeare theatre, James Burbage, upped sticks form Shoreditch after a similar dispute with his landlord: the impresario dismantled much of the wooden theatre and took it with him, this time over the Thames, where he rebuilt it – as the world-famous Globe.

Now that parts of the foundations have been discovered, they won’t be covered up again: to the left of the new stage there will be a glass floor – enabling actors to gaze down at the bricks that supported the Bard and his troupe as they tentatively waited for the opening-night curtain to rise on plays.