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7mo ago

Shakespeare’s London Home Pinpointed for the First Time

A newly found 1668 plan lets a scholar fix the Blackfriars property’s exact site and size, reshaping views of his final years.

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)
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.

Overview

  • Professor Lucy Munro identified the precise footprint of Shakespeare’s Blackfriars house using three archival records, including a 1668 plan found in the London Archives.
  • The mapped site aligns with today’s 5 St Andrew’s Hill and the adjoining stretches of Ireland Yard and Burgon Street, confirming the blue plaque sits on the actual spot.
  • The post‑fire plan shows an L‑shaped dwelling with one wing over the gatehouse not drawn, and measurements of about 45 feet east–west and 13 to 15 feet north–south.
  • Records trace the property from Shakespeare’s 1613 purchase to its 1665 sale by his granddaughter Elizabeth Hall Nash Barnard, followed by its loss in the Great Fire of London in 1666.
  • The find challenges the tidy retirement narrative by tying Shakespeare to Blackfriars near the indoor playhouse, and it drew praise from Shakespeare’s Globe ahead of publication in the Times Literary Supplement.