Exact location in London where Shakespeare's house stood has been established
The house, purchased by Shakespeare in 1613, three years before his death, was located on a quiet street in the Blackfriars area — in what is now the City.
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Scientists have established the exact location of William Shakespeare's house in London, the only property the poet owned in the British capital — this was reported by the press service of King's College London, writes the BBC.
The house, purchased by Shakespeare in 1613, three years before his death, was located on a quiet street in the Blackfriars area — in what is now the City.
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The location and dimensions of the house were established by Shakespeare scholar Lucy Munro from King's College London: she found several documents in British archives, one of which depicted a plan of the Blackfriars area, drawn in 1668, after the Great Fire of London. The plan of the area confirmed the exact location and dimensions of Shakespeare's house.
This discovery changes the perception of Shakespeare's last years. It was previously believed that Shakespeare left the theatre after the Globe fire in 1613 and returned to Stratford-upon-Avon.
The fact that he bought a house in London in 1613, not far from the Globe Theatre, indicates that Shakespeare continued to participate in the city's theatrical life in his last years.
The poet's house was located in the lower part of modern Bergan Street in the City of London. Currently, buildings from the late 19th century stand on the site of Shakespeare's house, located at the addresses 5 Bergan Street and 5 St. Andrew's Hill.
The blue commemorative plaque honoring Shakespeare on St. Andrew's Hill, it turned out, is not "next to" the location of his London house, but precisely on the very spot where the house of the poet and playwright once stood.
According to Lucy Munro, the house was part of the "Great Gate" at the entrance to the Blackfriars area, where a large 13th-century Dominican monastery was located.
Munro discovered three documents confirming the location of Shakespeare's house. Two documents were stored in the London Archives and one in the National Archives.
One of the documents was a plan of a part of the Blackfriars area, drawn in 1668, two years after the Great Fire of London. The plan depicted only a part of the playwright's house.
Two other documents relate to the sale of property in Blackfriars by Shakespeare's granddaughter in 1665.
«I was conducting research as part of a larger project and couldn't believe my eyes when I realized I was looking at a plan of Shakespeare's Blackfriars house,» says Munro.
According to her, it was long believed that no evidence of Shakespeare's house in London survived, and therefore no new research was conducted.
«These findings truly help us tell the complete story of Shakespeare's house in Blackfriars, and thanks to this new discovery, we now know exactly where it was located,» says the researcher.
Munro notes that the house was located next to the Blackfriars Theatre, where Shakespeare worked.
«We know that Shakespeare later, in 1613, co-authored the tragicomedy "The Two Noble Kinsmen" with John Fletcher. And new evidence that the house in Blackfriars was quite large suggests that part of the play might have been written in this very house,» notes Lucy Munro.
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