Shakespeare's Globe

The round, white building with the thatched roof in front of you is Shakespeare's Globe, a reconstruction of the theatre where many of his plays were first performed. The original Globe was built from stolen timber. Over Christmas 1598, while their landlord was away, the actors pulled down their old playhouse north of the city. They carried the timber across the Thames and put up a new theatre here on the south bank. In 1613 it all went wrong. During a performance, a stage cannon was fired and a spark caught the thatch. Within about an hour, the theatre was gone. Nobody died. One witness wrote that a man's breeches caught fire, and he put them out with a bottle of ale. The theatre you see now exists thanks to the American actor Sam Wanamaker. Disappointed to find the original site marked only by a small plaque, he spent decades getting the Globe rebuilt. He died a few years before it opened. Look up at the roof. It's the only thatched roof in London, and it needed special permission. After the Great Fire of 1666, thatch was banned in the city. Next stop: the Golden Hinde, about 600 metres or 8 minutes. Follow Bankside east, under Southwark Bridge, and into narrow, cobbled Clink Street.