• Interesting Facts and information about Globe Theatre London
• People and events - Globe Theatre London
• Interesting Facts and information about Globe Theatre London
• Facts and History about Globe Theatre London

Interesting information about the Globe Theatre London during the life and times of William Shakespeare

Globe Theatre London
The old Globe Theatre London was an exciting venue for staging the plays of William Shakespeare. Days out at the Globe Theatre would have been an exciting event in London. The grounds surrounding the Globe Theatre were bustling with hundreds of people. There were stalls selling merchandise and refreshments creating a market day atmosphere. Non playgoers would flock to the Globe Theatre just to go to the market stalls and 'soak in ' the holiday-like atmosphere. There was also free entertainments in the form of the Globe Theatre Green Shows. The Globe would have particularly attracted young people and the were many complaints of apprentices avoiding work in order to go to the Globe theatre in London. A trumpet was sounded to announce to people that the play was about to begin at the Globe Theatre London in order for people to take their final places.

Globe Theatre London - What was London like?
London was noisy, crowded, bawdy, bustling and busy. Trades of every kind and description! Churches, inns, houses, workshops, stalls, stables and theatres! Animals - cats, dogs, pigs, horses and sheep! Bull baiting, bear baiting and cock-fighting! Inns, taverns and bawdy houses! Actors, courtiers, churchmen, merchants, shoppers, apprentices, money lenders, bawds, beggars and thieves! We know exactly what London was like from this excerpt from a pamphlet, entitled "The Seven Deadly Sins of London" by Thomas Dekkar!

"Carts and coaches make such a thundering din as if the world ran on wheels; at every corner men, women, and children meet in such shoals that posts are set up to strengthen the houses lest with jostling with one another they should shoulder them down. Besides, hammers are beating in one place, tubs hooping in another [the noise made by coopers or barrel makes], pots clinking in a third, water-tankards running at tilt in a fourth. . . . Tradesmen, as if they were dancing galliards are lusty at legs and never stand still"

Globe Theatre London
The Globe Theatre London was built on the Southbank, outside the London City limits, where theatres had been banned. Theatres were not only used to show plays. There was gambling and in some there was even bear baiting. There were objections from London residents objections about the bawdy nature of some of the plays, the rise in crime around theatres like the Globe. There was also the real risk of the crowded theatres encouraging the spread of the Bubonic plague. There were constant outbreaks of the Bubonic Plague and every time this occurred the Theatres were shut down. The closures occurred in 1593 , 1603 and 1608. In 1563, in London alone, over 20,000 people died of the disease. The objections to the theatres escalated and the Church, London Officials and respectable citizens raised even more objections to the theatres. In December 1574 the Common Council of London, under the influences of puritanical factions, issued a statement describing:

" great disorder rampant in the city by the inordinate haunting of great multitudes of people, especially youth, to plays, interludes, namely occasion of frays and quarrels, evil practices of incontinency in great inns having chambers and secret places adjoning to their open stages and galleries, inveigling and alluring of maids, especially of orphans and good citizens' children under age, to privy and unmeet contracts, the publishing of unchaste, uncomely, and unshamefast speeches and doings . . . uttering of popular, busy, and seditious matters, and many other corruptions of youth and other enormities . . . [Thus] from henceforth no play, comedy, tragedy, interlude, not public show shall be openly played or showed within the liberties of the City . . . and that no innkeeper, tavernkeeper, nor other person whatsoever within the liberties of this City shall openly show or play . . . any interlude, comedy, tragedy, matter, or show which shall not be first perused and allowed . . . "

The complaints of London citizens continued and grew so much that in 1596 London's authorities banned the public presentation of plays and all theatres within the city limits of London. All theatres located in the City were forced to move to the South side of the River Thames - which explains the location of the Globe Theatre in London.

Globe Theatre London
Interesting Facts and information about the Globe Theatre London. Additional details, facts and information about the Globe Theatre can be accessed via the Globe Theatre Sitemap.