Literary London

Where the books were written, set, sold, printed and buried: from the Globe to the graves, the bookshops to the presses.

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The Curtain

Shoreditch's second Elizabethan playhouse, where Romeo and Juliet and Henry V were first seen.

ShakespeareFree

The Curtain opened in 1577 a few hundred yards south of the Theatre, and the Lord Chamberlain's Men played here for two seasons after they lost their own house, staging Romeo and Juliet and the first Henry V, whose prologue apologises for 'this wooden O'. Archaeologists found it in 2012 beneath a yard off Hewett Street and discovered it was not round at all but a rectangle, adapted from an existing building, with a stage nearly fourteen metres wide. The remains are kept beneath the development that went up over them, and a plaque marks the site.

Where
Curtain Road, EC2A
Nearest station
Shoreditch High Street · 5 min walk

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Data is compiled from public sources including OpenStreetMap, under the ODbL. Hours change often, so check before making a journey.

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