On this Day: Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre Burns Down

The original Globe Theatre met its untimely end during a moment of dramatic intensity, burning to the ground after a cannon shot during a performance of “Henry VIII” ignited the roof of the gallery.

Playwright William Shakespeare and his company had the building erected in the Bankside district of London in 1598 so the acting troupe could perform new plays. After convincing investors that the project would be a success, construction began.

Just one year after the 1613 fire, the theater was rebuilt. Having learned from the original’s fate, builders used tiles for the roof of the second Globe instead of thatched straw. The rebuilt Globe operated until 1642, when the Puritans, believing theaters were places of “sin” rather entertainment, shut it down.

The building was eventually razed, and when American actor and director Sam Wanamaker visited the site in 1949, he was disappointed that there was no lasting memorial to Shakespeare.

In 1970 Wanamaker founded the Shakespeare Globe Trust, which sought to rebuild the Globe Theatre once again. Construction began on the site in 1987, but Wanamaker died in 1993 before seeing the theater’s completion.

Wanamaker’s Globe was completed in 1997 and still exists as a working theater where Shakespeare’s plays are performed today.

According to the Web site Shakespeare Resource Center, when the Globe Theatre was erected in 1598, it stood three stories high with a diameter of approximately 100 feet, and could hold up to 3,000 spectators. The stage where plays were performed was nearly 43 feet wide.

A real cannon shot during a performance of “Henry VIII” ignited the theater’s thatched straw roof in 1613, burning it to the ground. A year later, the theater was rebuilt.

Clemson University provides a virtual tour of what the original Globe Theatre would have looked like, including illustrations and a QuickTime movie.

The Shakespeare Globe Trust, founded by Sam Wanamaker to rebuild the Globe, is “dedicated to the experience and international understanding of Shakespeare in performance. Its work celebrates the fact that the greatest dramatic poet in the English language lived and worked in London and that the cradle of English theatre was on Bankside by the River Thames,” according to the theater’s official Web site.

The BBC provides 360-degree views of the current Globe Theatre in London on its Web site. 

Shakespeare’s birthday is celebrated on April 23, but historians are not sure of the exact date in 1564 the playwright was born. His legacy, however, is undeniable. Shakespeare wrote around 37 plays, 154 sonnets and two long narrative poems. There are more books written about him and more films inspired by his work than any other writer, and he is the most-produced playwright of all time. It is estimated that Shakespeare coined about 1,500 of the 25,000 words in the English language. 

Visit the current Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre Web site for a schedule of upcoming plays, information about the rebuilding of the theater and news releases.