It’s exact location has long been a mystery but now new research has pinpointed the exact location of William Shakespeare’s Blackfriars house.
The discovery, the results of which were released last week, was made by Shakespeare expert Professor Lucy Munro, of King’s College London.
Professor Munro has been able to shed new light on the location using two documents from The London Archives and one from The National Archives.
One of the documents found in The London Archives – a plan of the Blackfriars precinct drawn up in 1668 – shows exactly where the property, which Shakespeare bought on 10th March, 1613, at the age of 48, was located.
It puts it at what is now the eastern end of Ireland Yard and the bottom of Burgon Street and also covered the land now occupied by sections of 19th century buildings at 5 Burgon Street and 5 St Andrew’s Hill.
Interestingly, the property 5 St Andrew’s Hill bears a City of London blue plaque, placed there in 2013, which suggests the house was located “near this site”. The find shows it was not just near, but actually on, part of the site.
The find also confirmed that the site of the house was partly located on land which had been previously occupied by the “great gate” that led into Blackfriars monastery – long known by historians.
It is possible that Shakespeare wrote the play The Two Noble Kinsmen, which he co-authored with John Fletcher later in 1613, while living in the property.
The property, which was located near a tavern at the Sign of the Cock (the Cockpit pub is now located on the site), was left to Shakespeare’s eldest daughter Susanna and then his grand-daughter Elizabeth Hall Nash Barnard who sold it in 1665, just a year before it was destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666.
Professor Munro’s research has been published in The Times Literary Supplement.
We’ve corrected the name of the Shakespeare play.
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