Shakespeare’s long-lost London home is finally found
By the end of his career, William Shakespeare was a veritable celebrity with several residences across England. Historical records indicate that the legendary playwright spent the majority of his later years in the town of his youth, Stratford-upon-Avon, but he also owned property in the Blackfriars area. Named after the 13th-century Dominican convent, the area is located in east London, not far from the Millennium Bridge and about 100 miles southeast of the playwright’s hometown. There is even a plaque located at 5 St. Andrew’s Hill commemorating this last real estate transaction: On 10 March 1613, William Shakespeare purchased accommodation in Blackfriars Gatehouse located near this site.
“Near this site” is a crucial detail, however. Archival evidence shows that Shakespeare’s granddaughter, Elizabeth Hall Nash Barnard, sold the property in 1665, but the house burned down along with around 15% of the city’s housing in the Great Fire of London the following year. In subsequent centuries, historians could not be sure of the property’s exact location.
After 360 years, the mystery finally seems to be solved. According to Lucy Munro, a Shakespeare expert at King’s College London, three recently found documents pinpoint the exact location of the writer’s London residence.
“I was doing research as part of a larger project and couldn’t believe it when I realized what I was looking at: the plan of Shakespeare’s Blackfriars House,” Munro said in a statement.
Preserved in the London Archives, the plan can be seen in a rendering of the Blackfriars district drawn in 1668, just two years after the Great Fire. Part of the property extending over the gate itself is not shown on the map because it lacked foundations, but the other section was clearly 45 feet wide east to west and 13 to 15 feet wide at each end. Although there is no internal layout, historians believe the structure was large enough to be divided into two houses. This suggests that Shakespeare may have stayed at the property occasionally while using it as a source of additional income.
“It has sometimes been thought that he bought his Blackfriars property simply as an investment, but we do not know whether this is true, nor whether he ever used it for himself,” Munro said. “After all, he could have bought an investment property anywhere in London, but this house was close to his workplace at the Blackfriars Theater.”
Shakespeare’s own career also supports this theory. In 1613 he co-wrote Two noble parents with fellow London playwright John Fletcher, and visited the city again the following year.
“We… know that Shakespeare was visiting London in November 1614 – is it not likely that he stayed in his own house? » said Munro.
Over the past 100 years, businesses located in properties built on the site of Shakespeare’s home included a printing company, an architectural firm and a carpet wholesaler. But the most appropriate of all? The National Book Association.
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