London's rebuilt Globe got the only thatched roof allowed since the Great Fire
After the Great Fire of 1666, London stopped letting anyone put thatch on a roof. Shakespeare's Globe, rebuilt beside the Thames and opened in 1997, is said to be the one exception, its straw soaked in fire retardant and guarded by sprinklers. Everything else about it aimed to recreate a playhouse of 1599.
The original Globe went up in 1599, built by the Lord Chamberlain's Men, Shakespeare's company. It burned down in 1613, was rebuilt the next year and was demolished in 1644. The American actor Sam Wanamaker, who had moved to London in the 1950s, set up a trust in 1970 to recreate it near the old site at Bankside in Southwark. Sceptics said a faithful copy was impossible given the uncertain design and modern fire rules, but Wanamaker and his associate Diana Devlin kept pushing for more than 20 years.
Historian John Orrell's research shaped the design, drawing on the timber-framed Theatre whose wood built the first Globe, the surviving contract for the Fortune Playhouse, contemporary drawings and the timely discovery of the remains of the nearby Rose Theatre. The result is made entirely of English oak held together with mortise and tenon joints, with no structural steel. A thrust stage juts into an open yard ringed by three tiers of benches. Safety rules cap the audience at 1,400, less than half the original's 3,000. Georgian townhouses cover part of the true site, so the new building stands about 230 metres away.
Queen Elizabeth II arrived for the opening by boat on the Thames, and the first production was Henry V. For its first 18 seasons the Globe used no spotlights or microphones, played music live on period instruments and let actors and audience see each other in daylight. Emma Rice experimented with lighting and sound rigs from 2016; Michelle Terry, the current artistic director, restored the original conditions.
Plays run from May to early October, and in winter the candlelit Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, an indoor Jacobean-style theatre opened in 2014, takes over. The Globe receives no public subsidy and brings in £24 million a year.
Source: Shakespeare's Globe
