Where there’s a Will…

SallyB2
By SallyB2 Last edited 187 months ago
Where there’s a Will…
0608.will.jpg

…there’s usually an exciting new project in the making. And word reaches Londonist today of one just such: the remains of the London theatre where Shakespeare first did his thing have been uncovered, in ‘no act of common passage but strain of rareness’ on the proposed site of a new theatre.

The previously nomadic Tower Theatre Company have acquired the property with a view to erecting their first full time base, and are understandably overjoyed at the idea that they will literally be walking in the footsteps of the Bard.

The Theatre was located not on the South Bank with its Elizabethan counterparts but rather in Shoreditch on New Inn Broadway. The tale goes that after a row with the landlords (plus ca change), the Lord Chamberlain’s Men dismantled the theatre and moved it plank by plank south of the river. Scholars were aware of its existence, but to date had not been entirely sure of its location. But archaeologists from the Museum of London who were poking around in the foundations have discovered evidence of the polygonal structure. This historical heritage will be preserved and incorporated into the structure of the new building.

What tickles Londonist the most about all of this is how it underlines what a crock of gold upon which we're perched. Every square metre of this great city is crammed full of tales to tell. That lot up at the museum have got a cracking good job, we reckon.

Virtual Will taken from blogefl’s flickr stream under the Creative Commons Licence.

Last Updated 06 August 2008