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4w ago

Archive Plan Pinpoints Shakespeare’s Blackfriars Home

A 1668 map clarifies his Blackfriars footprint, suggesting late-career ties to nearby playhouses.

A plaque erected by the City of London to commemorate where William Shakespeare lived on a wall is pictured inLondon, Wednesday, April 15, 2026 he purchased lodgings in the Blackfriars Gatehouse, which was located close by. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)
Shakespeare's London house was identified in a plan of the Blackfriars district from 1668.
Circa 1600, English dramatist and poet William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616) ponders his next work.
A plaque erected by the City of London to commemorate where William Shakespeare lived on a wall, top right, is pictured in London, Wednesday, April 15, 2026, he purchased lodgings in the Blackfriars Gatehouse, which was located close by. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

Overview

  • Lucy Munro of King’s College London found a 1668 plan in the London Archives that fixes the exact site of Shakespeare’s London house.
  • Cross-checked with property records, the plan shows an L-shaped home that partly crossed the Blackfriars gatehouse and was large enough to split into two dwellings.
  • The footprint lines up with today’s Ireland Yard and Burgon Street by 5 St Andrew’s Hill in the Blackfriars precinct near the theater district.
  • Records show he bought the property in 1613, his granddaughter sold it in 1665, and the house was lost in the Great Fire of London in 1666, leaving maps and deeds as the key evidence.
  • The findings, set for publication in the Times Literary Supplement, drew praise from Shakespeare’s Globe for reinforcing a picture of Shakespeare as active in London late in his career.