The Fortune Theatre

The Shoreditch Theatres

In April 1576, about half a mile north of Bishopsgate, James Burbage, a carpenter turned actor, leased a plot of land close to the Holywell and adjoining Finsbury Field. With financial help from his brother-in-law John Blane, a grocer, he built the earliest known playhouse and called it "The Theatre". It was octagonal or circular in shape, with three galleried tiers and a central yard. It would hold up to a thousand people, and its design was based upon public inns,  where plays had been performed since before Queen Mary's reign, with influences of ancient Graeco-Roman theatre.

The Theatre was built outside the City walls, thus beyond the jurisdiction of the Common Council. They had always been concerned that large gatherings of people could become uncontrollable and that many plays were anti-authority. In fact a law of 1547 debarred "vagabond actors" from the City. Before it opened properly the building was used for "dramatic performances" during the autumn of 1576, which helped to pay for its completion. It opened finally in August 1577, with a permanent stage and tiring house, and attracted both companies of actors with wealthy patronage and large audiences.

Within one year, about a hundred yards to the south, Henry Lanman, Gentleman, had build and opened the Curtain Theatre. The Curtain was named after the estate originally on its site, formerly owned by the Priory of Holywell. Built to a similar design as the Theatre it was equally successful. Its sign was a striped curtain. Eight years later the two theatres merged and the managers pooled profits. The Lord Chamberlain's Company led by Richard Burbage (Son of James) played both theatres. The Company included William Shakespeare and Will Kempe. Shakespeare and Ben Jonson wrote plays, including the first performance of Henry IV, and Every Man in his Humour.

James Burbage died in 1596. Simultaneously the lease for The Theatre ran out. His two other sons, Cuthbert and Richard could not agree a lease with their landlord, so with the help of the master carpenter Peter Streete, they dismantled the whole building and transported it to Southwark where it was re-erected as the Globe, to become the "Glory of the Bank". Shakespeare had a one-tenth interest in the venture.

The Curtain apparently carried on: it is recorded that the company named Queen Anne's Men left in 1605 for the Red Bull in Clerkenwell, to be followed by Prince Charles's Men who were at the Curtain until 1610. The last recorded performances were by Prince Charles's Servants in 1623. The site is marked today by Curtain Road, and several actors are buried in Shoreditch Church. The George in Southwark and now the new Globe are the closest example we have left today of these type of ancient theatres.

Fortune Theatre

November 1600 saw the opening of a new and magnificent theatre, the first playhouse in London proper, in what was to become Playhouse Yard, between Whitecross Street and Golden Lane. It was a large, round brick building, standing upon the site appointed some years before as  a nursery for the children of Henry VIII (where they were sent for the benefit of the air). The lease was purchased in December 1559 by Edward Alleyn and his wife's stepfather Philip Henslowe for �240, plus a rental of �12 annually for 41 years. The three-storey theatre was built by Peter Streete at a cost of �440, the overall cost after expenses was �1320, a large sum indeed.

The Admiral's Men who had Edward Alleyn as leading actor and Henslowe as manager at the "Rose" Theatre on the South Bank, moved in as the resident company. The Rose was torn down in 1606. they amalgamated with Pembroke's Men, and the theatre thrived. A contemporary writer described their audiences as similar to those at the nearby "Red Bull", that is mainly "citizens and the meaner kind of people". The only way permission was received to build the Fortune was supposedly as a replacement for the Curtain, a reason accepted by the Common Council. In fact the Curtain survived for another twenty years.

Alleyn (1556-1626) and Henslowe who died in 1616, rented the theatre to the acting companies. When performances were due a trumpeter played from the flag turret to summon audiences. All plays had to be submitted for licensing to the Master of the Revels, at the St. John's Gate, Clerkenwell. Shakespeare and Ben Jonson would have been amongst those playwrights who had to seek his permission. Often plays were performed specially for the Master of the Revels, and try-out tours made of local inns including the Old Queen's Head and the Saracen's Head, both in Islington, and probably at the Angel Inn. Much of the money Alleyn made for the Fortune was instrumental in endowing and erecting the famous College of Dulwich, and building various groups of alms houses, including those in Bath Street, Finsbury.

Theatres were vulnerable to fire (the Globe was burnt down in 1613), and the Fortune succumbed to this hazard in 1612. It was rebuilt by 1623 and opened with Palsgrave's Men who played there until 1631. This was in fact the third name change for the original company who between times were known ac Prince Henry's Men. They were succeeded until 1635 by the King's Revels, followed by the Red Bull Company. Prince Charles's Men (yet another name change for the Old Admiral's Men) played there until 1649 when most of the building was pulled down. Final demolition occurred in 1660 when the "Nursery" was erected upon the site, another theatre, and once visited by Samuel Pepys in 1667. Playhouse Yard can be seen on contemporary maps, and today a plaque can be found in Fortune Street.