Shakespeare's Globe Centre (USA) Centre for Globe Research

Rebuilding Shakespeare's Globe

Archaeological Evidence

The Rose theatre was the first to be built in Southwark, in 1587. Its remains were discovered in 1989. It was a timber framed polygonal structure with fourteen sides, resting on a rammed chalk footing in the marshy soil. The excavations established the standard depth of the covered footing: 12ft 6in.

The stage was probably covered with a gable and pent roof. The floor was a lime concrete layer covered with hazel nut shells and cinders (recycled waste from an adjoining soap factory) together with silt from the Thames. The timber frame was infilled with laths and plastered. The Rose excavations confirmed assumptions about the structure for the new Globe.

The Globe remains themselves are more fragmentary. They were uncovered and examined, although not excavated, also in 1989. Much of the original Globe site lies beneath Southwark Bridge Road and Anchor Terrace, which is a Grade 11 listed building. The foundations are similar in structure to the Rose, but they suggest a twenty- sided polygonal plan. The depth of the gallery at the lowest level was 12ft 6in. The stage was probably in the southwest corner. Maid Lane, today Park Street, ran between the two theatres.

A plan of the Globe, based on a twenty-sided figure 100 feet in diameter. The superimposed segment shows the limited extent of the original theatre that was uncovered in 1989.

Questions? Email the Research Archive(globe@deans.umd.edu)
Updated on: 1 March 2002