From the night Shakespeare’s actors dismantled their own theatre and carried it across London to the American actor who spent 30 years rebuilding it, the Globe has one of the most extraordinary stories in British cultural history.
Whether you’re talking about Shakespeare’s Globe (the reconstruction that opened in 1997) or the original Globe (built in 1599 and burned down in 1613), you’re talking about a building with one of the most extraordinary stories in British cultural history. Here are fourteen facts that even regular visitors tend not to know.
The Globe was physically carried from Shoreditch to the South Bank
In 1594, William Shakespeare joined a group of actors called the Lord Chamberlain’s Men. Their lead actor was Richard Burbage, whose family had built the company’s original theatre in Shoreditch, fittingly named The Theatre. When their landlord Giles Alleyn moved to cancel their lease and tear the building down, Burbage and his company took matters into their own hands.
On a December night in 1598, they dismantled the entire theatre, plank by plank, and physically carried the timber across London and across the Thames to reconstruct it on the South Bank in Southwark. The Globe opened in 1599 on the proceeds of what might be the most dramatic building relocation in London’s history.
The name is a reference to Hercules
The name The Globe is thought to be a reference to Hercules, who in classical mythology famously carried the world on his back: a knowing nod to the actors who had just carried an entire theatre across the city. A flag depicting Hercules was raised above the building alongside the Latin motto ‘totus mundus agit histrionem’, meaning ‘all the world is a playhouse’. Which is, of course, where Shakespeare’s line from As You Like It comes from.
The stage pillars are made from single tree trunks
The two solid pillars that hold up the stage roof at Shakespeare’s Globe, painted to look like marble, are each made from a single tree trunk. This was true of the original theatre too. The ceiling above, known as The Heavens, is painted as a night sky with images of gods looking down. Under the stage, trap doors lead to a cellar known as Hell, used for ghostly apparitions and sound effects.
Standing in The Pit was the cheapest option, and the smelliest
Theatre in Shakespeare’s day was one of the most democratic art forms in England: genuinely affordable and attended by all levels of society. The Globe squeezed in around 3,000 people, with standing tickets for The Pit, or Yard, being the cheapest option. These standing audience members were called Standlings, and rather less politely, the Stinkards. The most privileged seats were on the third storey, far from the smell.
Today, standing Groundling tickets at Shakespeare’s Globe start from £5 via the Friday Rush scheme and £7 normally, still the best value tickets in London for live Shakespeare.
Women were not allowed to perform
The idea of a woman acting in Shakespeare’s time was considered entirely inappropriate. Female roles, including Juliet, Titania, Lady Macbeth and Cleopatra, were all played by men, typically young boys before their voices broke. It took until 1660, when a theatre ban was lifted, for this to change. Margaret Hughes is thought to be the first professional actress on the English stage, playing Desdemona in an Othello at London’s Vere Street theatre.
The whole theatre burned down because of a faulty cannon
During a performance of Henry VIII in June 1613, a cannon filled with gunpowder was fired to mark the arrival of the king at the end of Act One. The pyrotechnics did not go according to plan. The thatched roof caught fire and the whole theatre burned to the ground within two hours. One man’s breeches caught alight, though he was reportedly doused with a bottle of ale before any lasting damage was done. Everyone else escaped safely. The second Globe was built the following year.
Success at the Globe led to royal patronage
The Lord Chamberlain’s Men were so successful that when King James I came to the throne in 1603, he became their patron and the company was renamed the King’s Men. The Globe was owned by six sharers: Richard Burbage and his brother held the largest stakes at 25% each, while Shakespeare owned 12.5%. Burbage went on to play Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello and King Lear, becoming the most celebrated actor of his era.
All theatre was banned for 18 years
In 1642, the Puritan Long Parliament ordered all London theatres to close. Stage plays were condemned as representative of ‘lascivious Mirth and Levity’ and unsuitable for the national mood. The ban lasted until 1660, when King Charles II came to power, by which point the original Globe had already been demolished. It was never rebuilt in Shakespeare’s time.
The reconstruction was the life’s work of an American actor
The rebuilt Shakespeare’s Globe that stands today is almost entirely the achievement of Sam Wanamaker, an American actor and director who moved to London after a successful Broadway career and was appalled to find no permanent memorial to Shakespeare on Bankside. He set up the Shakespeare’s Globe Trust in 1970 with the aim of rebuilding a close replica of the original theatre near its Bankside location. It took nearly 30 years. Wanamaker died in 1993, four years before the theatre he spent his life rebuilding finally opened. The indoor Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, opened in 2014, is named in his honour.
The original Globe’s exact location was found under a car park
Shakespeare’s Globe today is not on the exact site of the original: it’s about 230 metres away. In 1989, archaeologists from what is now Museum of London Archaeology discovered part of the original theatre’s foundations beneath a car park on Park Street, including an original pier base. Most of the foundations lie beneath 67-70 Anchor Terrace, a listed building where no further excavation has been possible.
The thatched roof is technically illegal
After the Great Fire of London in 1666, thatched roofs were effectively banned in the city. Shakespeare’s Globe successfully lobbied for a special exception and has the only thatched roof in London since 1666. It’s made from 6,000 bundles of Norfolk reeds and required planning authorities to make an exception they’ve never made for anyone else.
It’s not round
The Globe is commonly described as circular, but it’s actually a polygon with 20 sides, known as an icosagon. This was only confirmed in the 1980s when the foundations of the original theatre were uncovered. The reconstruction matches this shape as closely as possible, built using green oak from English forests, fixed with wooden pegs, without a steel structure.
There are at least eight Globe replicas in America alone
There are several interpretations and replicas of the Globe around the world, with at least eight in the United States. The Panasonic Globe Theatre in Tokyo uses a contemporary interpretation of the design for performing Shakespeare’s plays. The London Globe is the only true reconstruction and is, of course, located where all the action happened.
Right now, the groundlings can audition to perform in the play
The current production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, running until 29 August, does something no production at the Globe has quite done before. Director Emily Lim, whose background is in large-scale participatory theatre at the National, holds pre-show auditions where groundlings can try out for the Rude Mechanicals. Selected audience members then actually appear onstage during the Pyramus and Thisbe sequence. It’s the most direct realisation of the Globe’s relationship with its audience in the building’s modern history, and exactly the kind of thing that would have happened in Shakespeare’s time.
Visiting Shakespeare’s Globe: what to know
- The Globe runs productions from April to October in the open-air theatre, with the indoor Sam Wanamaker Playhouse hosting a winter programme of candlelit performances including King John. The current A Midsummer Night’s Dream runs until 29 August 2026.
- Standing Groundling tickets start from £5 via the Friday Rush scheme (released every Friday at 11am for the following week’s performances, including sold-out shows) and £7 normally. They remain the best value theatre tickets in London.
- The show goes on whatever the weather. Umbrellas are not allowed in the yard. Dress accordingly.
- There’s no minimum age limit for performances, though some shows carry content warnings. Shakespeare’s Globe also stages work by other Renaissance playwrights and runs a full programme of workshops, tours, talks and events.
- Guided tours of the theatre run year-round.
- Address: 21 New Globe Walk, Bankside, London SE1 9DT Nearest tube: Southwark (Jubilee line) or London Bridge (Jubilee and Northern lines) Website: shakespearesglobe.com
The London x London Take: Shakespeare’s Globe is one of those London institutions that rewards going more than once. The building itself is extraordinary, the Groundling experience is unlike any other theatre in the city, and the current A Midsummer Night’s Dream, in which audience members actually get to perform, is one of the most joyful things on a stage in London right now. Go before it closes on 29 August.
