Shakespeare's Globe Theatre Opens
A 3,000-seat playhouse on the south bank of the Thames stages Hamlet, Macbeth, and Julius Caesar for the first time
Quick facts
- Opened
- May 1599
- Capacity
- Up to 3,000
- Destroyed by fire
- 1613, during a performance of Henry VIII
- Modern reconstruction opened
- 1997
What happened
By May 1599 Shakespeare's playing company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men, had a new open-air theatre ready on the south bank of the Thames. The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust describes the building as 30 metres in diameter with 20 sides, giving it a roughly circular shape, with a rectangular stage five feet high projecting halfway into the yard and surrounded by circular galleries able to hold up to 3,000 people. Its early repertoire, staged in the years immediately after opening, included Henry V, Julius Caesar, As You Like It, Hamlet, Measure for Measure, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth, and Antony and Cleopatra. The original Globe burned down in 1613 during a performance of Henry VIII when a stage cannon set the thatched roof alight, was rebuilt in 1614, and was demolished in 1644 under Puritan rule; a modern reconstruction, built on the initiative of the American actor Sam Wanamaker, opened in 1997 close to the original site.
Why it matters
The Globe gave Shakespeare's company a large, purpose-built commercial venue at the height of his career, and most of his best-known tragedies had their first performances on its stage. Its design and repertoire capture the scale and popularity of Elizabethan public theatre, a form of mass entertainment that drew thousands of Londoners of every social class in a way state-sponsored culture never had before.
How we know
The Globe's dimensions and repertoire are documented through contemporary accounts, including a 1596 sketch of a similar London theatre and later legal and property records, and the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust holds the world's largest Shakespeare-related archive documenting the theatre and the plays staged there.
Sources
- Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. Shakespeare's Globe Theatre · General sourceshakespeare.org.uk · Cited as a "reference" source (no stronger domain match). · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
- Shakespeare's Globe (modern reconstruction trust). The Globe · General sourceshakespearesglobe.com · Cited as a "reference" source (no stronger domain match). · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
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