New Discoveries About Shakespeare's Blackfriars with Lucy Munro

With it estimated that travel from Stratford Upon Avon to London might take days or even weeks depending on the weather and mode of transportation, it's only logical to think that Shakespeare must have had a place to stay when he was in London for work.

There is a court case in which Shakespeare is mentioned by name that places him as a lodger with the Mountjoy family on Silver Street in 1604. There's also documentary evidence to suggest Shakespeare was neighbors with a young John Fletcher in Bishopsgate. And it only makes sense to expect that Shakespeare might have had a place to stay near The Globe theater in Southwark, but that remains largely a guess. More recently, Matthew Steggle has done new research into the letter written to Mrs. Shakespeare, which places Mr. And Mrs. Shakespeare once again, residing in London.

When it comes to his Blackfriars property, however, scholars have been stumped because documentary evidence suggests Shakespeare did own property in the Blackfriars, but no one knew exactly where until now. Our guest this week, Lucy Munro, has uncovered three new documents including a set of floorplans for the Blackfriars building, that reveal not only where Shakespeare's property was located, but precisely how large it was, and exactly how it was positioned in relation to neighboring structures in the Blackfriars.