Shakespearean London

Sixteenth-century London was a thriving, bustling, and overcrowded city in the midst of huge growth. It offered a cross section of all walks of society and there were plenty of characters for playwrights to draw inspiration from. This guide will provide an overview of London’s landscape and society during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries and identify some of the key landmarks that could be seen. It then moves on to look at Shakespeare’s arrival in London and some of the ways in which he incorporated local places into his plays.

Key Dates & Events

• 1559 - The coronation of Elizabeth I in Westminster Abbey.
• 1575 - The Lord Mayor of London issued an edict forbidding the performance of plays within the city walls.
• 1592 - William Shakespeare left his family behind in Stratford-upon-Avon to move to London around this time.
• 1593 - London’s theatres were closed during a severe wave of plague which killed around 10,000 of London’s residents.
• 1603 - The coronation of James I (James VI of Scotland) in Westminster Abbey.
• 1604 - Around this time, Shakespeare rented lodgings in Silver Street and lived with the Mountjoys, a French family.
• 1607 - The poet John Donne described the city as “London, plaguey London, full of danger and vice”.
• 1613 - Shakespeare purchased his own property at Puddle Wharf in Blackfriars.