Globe Theatre Thatched Roof

Even when smoke began to curl upwards no one paid much attention.

Globe theatre thatched roof.

Work to replace the thatched roof of the iconic shakespeare s globe theatre in london has begun. Wanamaker fought long and hard to utilize the thatch and this is the first and only permitted thatched roof in london since 1666. Swift reconstruction did. Thatchers this week start work repairing the roof of shakespeare s globe on bankside with 800 bundles of sedge from the norfolk broads and 10 000 english hazel spars.

The globe was the primary home of shakespeare s acting company beginning in late 1599 and it is a possibility that as you like it was written especially for the occasion. When it was built in 1996 the replica of the original theatre became the city s first thatched structure since the great fire of 1666. Shakespeare s company built the globe only because it could not use the special roofed facility blackfriars theatre that james burbage the father of their leading actor richard burbage had built in 1596 for it inside the city the elder burbage had a long history as a theatrical entrepreneur in 1576 he had built the first successful amphitheatre known as the theatre in a london suburb. The thatched roof of the new globe was a subject of much debate as roof thatching had been outlawed after the great fire of london in 1666.

On june 29 1613 during a performance of henry viii a misfired canon ball set the globe s thatched roof on fire and the whole theatre was consumed. The building has several features recreated just like the original elizabethan structure shakespeare s globe has the first and only thatched roof permitted in london since the great fire of 1666. Shakespeare s globe is a reconstruction of the globe theatre an elizabethan playhouse for which william shakespeare wrote his plays in the london borough of southwark on the south bank of the river thames the original theatre was built in 1599 destroyed by the fire in 1613 rebuilt in 1614 and then demolished in 1644. Barely anyone in the crowd noticed that a piece of flaming material from one of the cannons had landed on the theatre s thatched roof.

In the words of one eyewitness their eyes were more attentive to the show. Today this historically accurate open air recreation of the theater where shakespeare s plays were performed located just a few hundred yards from the original globe has been joined by a second venue a candlelit indoor playhouse. Master thatchers phil campbell and kit davis who worked on the replica will tend to the roof with their teams. The modern globe theatre is an academic approximation based on.