Shakespeare's Shoreditch theatre unearthed

It seems we live just around the corner from one of the theatre's in which Shakespeare learned his trade!

Thursday August 07 2008 14:02 BST

The remains of the Theatre in Shoreditch, London where Shakespeare's early plays were first staged.

A shiver of excitement rippled around the theatrical globe as news spread of some grubby red bricks uncovered in a muddy pit off a nondescript street in east London.

Sir Ian McKellen will be making his way to New Inn Broadway in Shoreditch, one of many theatre luminaries impatient to see the site where his hero William Shakespeare learned his trade not just as a playwright but an actor.

The rows of Tudor brickwork uncovered by archaeologists from the Museum of London are believed to be the foundations of The Theatre, lost for more than 400 years since the building was dismantled in a stunt worthy of a Shakespeare comedy.

Jo Lyon, leader of the team of archaeologists, said: "As well as allowing us to walk in the footsteps of Shakespeare himself, the remains help us to start uncovering one of London's enduring secrets. We can now start to work on the detail of what the building here might have looked like, and expand our knowledge of the playhouses of Elizabethan London."

Wouldn't happen in Adelaide!