DID YOU KNOW?
London Bridge wasn’t the only way to cross
the Thames. People who were in a rush, or
had money, could pay to cross the river by
boats called ‘water taxis’. In Shakespeare’s
time there were around 3,000 of them!
Background Info:
> First permanent playhouse> 50,000 residents to over 200,000
> Biggest & richest city in England
> By 1600, London’s theatre-goers numbered 20,000 per week
> Rich noblemen became patrons of theatre companies, giving financial and legal support.
> Royalty also supported the theatre.
> From 1603 to 1613, Shakespeare’s company played at the court of King James about 15 times per year
> The dark attracted thieves and the overcrowding brought disease
> Plague struck most summers; in 1593 about about 10,000 people were killed and all the theatres were closed
> In 1607, John Donne called it “London, plaguey London, full of danger and vice”
City Landmarks:
> St Paul’s Cathedral was the biggest of London’s 120 churches
> It had a tower almost 300 feet tall; people could climb to the top
> Inside, as well as worship, crowds gathered to socialise or do business – which attracted pick-pockets and prostitutes
> Outside, the cathedral was used as a market and it was London’s centre for bookselling
> There was also an outside pulpit, where, Baron Waldstein said weekly “open air services…last nearly 3 hours”
>The Tower of London was London’s old medieval fortress
> By 1600 it housed rooms for the royal family, a treasury, a prison, a weapons store, a zoo and the royal mint, where nearly all England’s coins were made
> London Bridge was the only bridge in London
> It joined the City of London, on the north bank of the Thames, with Southwark on the south bank, where the Globe Theatre was
> It was about 800 feet long and supported by 20 pillars, through which the river rushed
> There were houses and shops either side of the bridge
> John Stow, a historian from the time, said that “it seemeth rather a continual street than a bridge”
Shakespeare:
> Shakespeare lived and worked in London from about 1590 to about 1613
> St Helen’s: In the mid-1590’s, Shakespeare lived in the London parish of St Helens, just north of London Bridge and close to The Theatre and The Curtain playhouses
> We know he was twice assessed for taxes there – and failed to pay both times
> Paris Gardens: From about 1598-1602, he seems to have lived in the Paris Gardens area of Bankside south of the river near The Globe, where he worked
> Silver Street: From about 1602, Shakespeare rented lodgings in the Silver Street house of the Mountjoys, a family of French immigrants who made expensive hats
