Shakespeare’s Company Opens the Globe

In 1599, the playing company known as the Lord Chamberlain's Men erected the Globe Theatre on the south bank of the Thames. The project emerged directly from a property conflict north of the river in Shoreditch, where the company had previously performed at a playhouse simply called The Theatre. Built in 1576 by James Burbage, that earlier structure sat on land leased for twenty-one years. Although the Burbage family owned the building outright, the landlord, Giles Allen, claimed possession of the physical structure once the lease expired. While Allen was away in late December 1598, the carpenter Peter Street joined the players and their allies in dismantling The Theatre beam by beam, storing the recovered timber near Bridewell until warmer spring weather allowed them to transport the material across the river.

The new playhouse was financed through an unusual shared ownership model among the players themselves. Richard Burbage and his brother Cuthbert held double shares amounting to twenty-five percent each. The remaining half was divided equally at ten percent apiece among five colleagues: William Shakespeare, John Heminges, Augustine Phillips, Thomas Pope, and William Kempe. Kempe left the company in 1599, and his portion passed to the remaining sharers. As new sharers joined the enterprise over subsequent years, Shakespeare's portion gradually declined to roughly seven percent.