29 Jun 2023
On This Day
29 June 2023 Cheryl

29 June 1613: The Globe Theatre is destroyed

The Globe Theatre burns down

As a young writer, William Shakespeare bought shares in the Globe theatre, meaning he benefited financially as his own popularity grew and the theatre became more successful. [1]

On 29 June 1613, the Globe Theatre in London, where most of William Shakespeare’s plays debuted, was destroyed by fire during a performance of Henry VIII in a significant and devastating event. This iconic theatre had become synonymous with the flourishing of Elizabethan and Jacobean drama and was a tremendous loss to the world of theatre.

A theatrical cannon announcing the unexpected arrival of the king at the end of Act 1 misfired and set fire to the roof, the thatch erupting in flames. Within minutes, the wooden structure was also alight, and in under an hour, the Globe was destroyed. Incredibly, only one casualty was recorded. A man’s breeches were said to have caught fire, and he doused himself in ale to put out the flames.

Built in 1599 by Shakespeare’s playing company, the “Lord Chamberlain’s Men” on the south bank of the River Thames, the Globe Theatre was constructed using timber from an earlier theatre relocated from Shoreditch. The playhouse had a unique circular design, with an open-air courtyard in the centre and three tiers of galleries surrounding it. It was the most magnificent theatre in London and was able to hold several thousand people.

After the 1613 fire destroyed the Globe, it was rebuilt with a tiled roof to prevent a similar disaster. However, like all the other theatres in London, the Globe was closed down by the Puritans in 1642. The building itself was pulled down from 1644 to 1645 to make room for housing tenements. A modern reconstruction of the Globe, named “Shakespeare’s Globe“, opened in 1997 approximately 230 metres from the site of the original theatre