Shakespearean tour of London with kids!
London is an historic place, there’s always something for kids to learn while travelling through its streets. Why not try to match up learning about Shakespeare with a trip to London?
Shakespeare lived and worked in London for years, and although we don’t know everything about his time there (there’s a 7 year period where Shakespeare went ‘missing’ as far as public records are concerned) we know some places he lived, worked and other places he probably frequented.
In fact, these details make up one of the activities in our Shakespeare workbook – following the plans in Shakespeare’s (fictional) diary as he travels around London for a day. Take a look at this map below showing some locations Shakespeare probably frequented.
On a sunny day you can walk between most of these places on foot, although many no longer look as they would have done in the Bard’s day.
St Paul’s
Shakespeare is recorded to have lived in Silver Street for some time, thanks to a court appearance he made as a witness. Silver Street was just north of St. Paul’s Cathedral (approximately on the corner or London Wall and Noble Street) but the entire area burned down during the Great Fire of London. You can wander around the area, but it doesn’t look like it did in Shakespeare’s time. Even the cathedral is different. Although St Paul’s did exist in Shakespeare’s time, its current design wasn’t finished until 100 years after he died.
Leadenhall Market
Leadenhall Market is a beautiful covered market in Gracechurch Street, although the beautiful ornate roof wasn’t designed until the 1800s. It’s one of the oldest markets in London and is built on the centre of Roman Londinium. The market still sells fruit, vegetable, meat and fish so it’s reasonable to assume that Shakespeare visited here for lunch, although we have no official record of it.
London Bridge
In Shakespeare’s day there was only one bridge across the Thames – London Bridge. If the Bridge was too busy, you could take a rowboat across the river, but you had to pay for the privilege. The bridge would have been much more crowded than it is now, with people selling food, travellers coming into the city on horseback and plenty more. In Shakespeare’s day, the theatre was considered an unsavoury profession, so all the playhouses were outside the city walls, on the south side of the river.
The Clink
The Clink was a famous prison, named after the street it’s on. It’s also where the slang expression “in the clink” (in prison) comes from. Shakespeare would have walked past this many times, and knew at least one actor who was imprisoned there. The Clink is now a museum which you can visit – the tiny street it’s on gives great insight into what Shakespeare’s London probably looked like.
The George Inn
The George Inn on Borough High Street is one of the oldest surviving pubs in London. Shakespeare lived and worked near here and definitely would have dropped in for a pint. It still serves drinks, and you can sit outside in the courtyard, admiring the galleries above.
The Rose Theatre
Shakespeare had a strong connection to the Rose Theatre, where many of his plays premiered. Other famous playwrights also had plays here, like Christopher Marlowe. It was probably the first proper Elizabethan theatre and many of its records still survive. The exact location of the Rose wasn’t known until the late 20th century, when builders were preparing to build a high rise office building. Remains of the Rose were found on the site and historians and actors from around the world insisted that they be preserved. Now you can go underneath an office building on Park Street, and in the basement find the remains of the Rose.
The Globe Theatre
Shakespeare was a part owner of the Globe and many of his plays were performed here. In fact, the Globe burned down in 1613 during a performance of Shakespeare’s Henry VIII (a canon firing set the thatch roof alight) but was rebuilt quickly. Nowadays the Globe is well known because a reconstruction of it was built on the same spot in 1997. You can tour the Globe, go backstage and even see a performance there!
Just remember, in Shakespeare’s day everything behind the Globe Theatre would have been fields and open spaces – London just wasn’t that big then!
Planning a trip to London to learn about Shakespeare with kids?
Why not try our Shakespeare workbook?
It’s got 6 Shakespeare themed activities, including:
Navigating around Shakespeare’s London
Match the animal to the Shakespeare play
Translating some Romeo & Juliet into plain English
Recognizing the pitfalls of The Scottish Play!
Our Shakespeare workbook is available as part of our online platform, DTK Online. DTK Online uses educational workbooks, which are a mixture of online and printable activities, to teach about different countries around the world. We want to spark kids’ interest in learning more about the world. Currently 22 workbooks available.