We start by showing you where plays were performed before ‘the Theatre.’ As we pass the site of the great Elizabethan theatres and a new version of one, you hear how plays were written and performed in a very different way from today. You also hear of the restrictions placed on actors and their troupes as we pass through what was lawless Bankside where Elizabeth 1 came for entertainment frowned upon by a growing movement. And we see places either side of the river where Shakespeare worked and lived, in two different types of theatre. And if you start to get tired you can even sit on the very seat where the Bard used to sit and wait for his commuter transport home at the end of a hard day. We also see a bust of the great man, though on closer inspection it’s a memorial to two important friends of his.

Start Borough underground station
Finish Mansion House underground station
Shorter walk alternative: Finish St Paul’s underground station