Overview
- Lucy Munro of King’s College London identified the property using a 1668 plan held in the London Archives that maps the Blackfriars precinct after the Great Fire.
- The plan and related papers show an L-shaped home beside the Sign of the Cock tavern, a few minutes’ walk from the Blackfriars and Globe playhouses.
- Property deeds confirm Shakespeare’s 1613 purchase and trace the chain of ownership to a 1665 sale by his granddaughter Elizabeth Barnard, before the house was lost in the 1666 fire.
- Munro argues the location and size point to continued work and business in London late in his career, possibly including collaborations with John Fletcher on his final plays.
- The identified spot aligns with the plaque at 5 St Andrew’s Hill, and scholars at Shakespeare’s Globe say the find strengthens a view of Shakespeare as a London-based writer.