The Rose Theatre

The Rose Theatre was the first of the Bankside theatres to be built and was modelled on The Theatre, the first purpose-built  theatre in London constructed by James Burbage in Curtain Road, Shoreditch.  Before then, public performances of plays took place in market squares or the courtyards of inns.  Inns were easily adapted for the staging of plays as they had large courtyards where a stage could be erected temporarily.  The courtyard was overlooked by galleried buildings which could be used alternatively as a musicians gallery, as a viewing area for the audience, in particular patrons and notables, and to accommodate parts of the action of the play, for example the balcony scene in Romeo and Juliet.  James Burbage was a joiner and based his design of The Theatre on an inn’s courtyard and surrounding galleried buildings.  It became the model for all Elizabethan playhouses.

The City of London banned the performance of plays within their jurisdiction in 1596 but the Rose was completed a few years prior to this.  It was multi-sided, based on a 14 sided polygon, with a thatched roof and an open galleried courtyard with a stage projecting into it.  It was built by Phillip Henslowe, a dyer by trade and a member of the Dyer’s Company.  Born in Sussex he lived in the Clink Liberty and in 1587 went into partnership with John Cholmley who had a house in Rose Alley, named after a rose garden, which became the site of the Rose Theatre. Henslowe also worked in partnership with his step-son-in-law, Edward Alleyn, who was reputed to be one of the best actors of his generation.  Henslowe’s company was known as The Admiral’s Men and they staged plays, by among others, Marlow, Dekker and Drayton.  Henslowe opened the Fortune Theatre to the north of the city in 1600 where he transferred the bulk of his theatrical interests, perhaps because of the competition from the newly opened Globe Theatre on Bankside.  Other theatrical companies used the Rose but it had been abandoned as a theatre by 1606.