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

Rebuilding Shakespeare's Globe

Construction Materials

Tudor bricks

For the Fortune theatre: Peter Street the carpenter who built the original Globe, was required to build a footing 'one foote att the lleiste above the ground'.

Bricks were specially made to match examples of Tudor bricks from Whitechapel, now kept in the Museum of London. The new bricks were fired in a Victorian clamp by the brickmakers Ibstock in Sussex. The pointing is flush in the authentic manner, not bucket handled or weather struck.

English oak

The original Globe was made from the oak timbers of the Theatre, the first English theatre built in Shoreditch by James Burbage in 1576. By Shakespeare's time the craft skills available were immense. The tolerance expected for cutting, jointing and erecting heavy timbers is measured in millimetres.

Peter McCurdy is the master carpenter who built the new Globe. He has a wide experience of similar structures and is much concerned with the historic accuracy of frame detailing.

Seasoned English Oak is too hard to work. The structure is therefore made from green oak which becomes seasoned in position. Whenever possible the timber was chosen while still growing. Quite small trees can be used if there is an appropriate place for them in the structure - trees which would generally be rejected by the modern timber industry.
Inset: Donated oak was collected at
Henry Venables's yard in Stafford.

Structural timbers of the sixteenth century were generally 'boxed heart' with the circular tree-section hewn to a square, with the centre 21 of the annular rings in the centre of the section. This method takes the weaker sap wood into the corners of the squared timbers. These corners are less durable than the heart of the timber and decay first. Secondary structural timbers would have been sawn in halves along their length in a saw pit, and sometimes into quarters by repeating the process again.

Structural sections were generally hewn to shape with a side axe and finished to a smooth true surface with a long handled adze.

Each section of timber is cut, and the joint precisely scribed and fitted. The timbers are not necessarily square, so the skill of scribing is the essence of successful jointing. Although corresponding joints on each frame are the same, as each joint is individually fitted the joining timbers are not interchangeable.

Each frame within the final structure is made lying flat on the ground in the carpenter's yard. The joints are then carefully marked and the frame dismantled. The carpenter has to work methodically through the structure so that each flat frame is made in the yard. The frame is then reassembled on site, the two-dimensional prefabricated frames being formed into a three- dimensional structure for the first time. The frames are made up one at a time, lifted into position and connected together.

The largest single timber in the building comes from a tree found near Hereford. It is 44ft long with a section 24 by 1 3in and supports the stage roof resting on the two giant stage posts.

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