The Rose: the playhouse that established Bankside’s disreputable theatre tradition

In the late 16^th and early 17^th centuries Bankside was where Londoners would go to catch a play in one of four open-air playhouses. While the Globe is now the most famous of these, the Rose opened first and helped contribute to the district’s notorious reputation.

Remains of this pioneering theatre were discovered by archaeologists in the late 1980s and are now preserved in the basement of an office block. Fundraising is underway to excavate more of the site with the aim of one day re-establishing a functioning playhouse on its site.

First Bankside playhouse

In 1574 the Common Council of the City of London met to ban plays from being performed within it walls. It said that the “great disorders and inconvenices… found to ensue to this city” could be attributed to people (“specially youth”) attending “plays, interludes, and shows”. And this apparently resulted in “frays and quarrels” taking place. To get round the ban actors performed outside the City’s walls and the authority’s jurisdiction.

Theatre performances had been initially held in churches and the courtyards of inns. But purpose-built playhouses were built when plays were performed outside the City walls. The first of these to be a success was the aptly named ‘The Theatre’ in Shoreditch, to the east of the City, which opened in 1577. Built as an open-air venue, which avoided the need for large numbers of candles to light it, it featured a stage jutting out to the yard where some of the audience stood while those that could afford it paid more to sit in the surrounding galleries. This design would be replicated when theatres opened on the south bank.

In 1587 the businessman Philip Henslowe took out a lease on a garden called ‘the Little Rose’ where he built the first of Bankside’s four great playhouses. The Rose was 14-sided and was probably three storeys high. It was constructed using plaster and wood, and had a thatched roof.

When the Rose first opened it could hold 500 people standing in the yard and around 1,100 more seated in the galleries. But given its popularity it was soon extended to allow it to accommodate an audience of more than 2000. Henslowe also extended the stage and added a cover over the performance area to give the actors some form of protection against the elements.  

We know so much about how the Rose operated from account books kept by Henslowe. They discuss the plays that were performed, how much Henslowe earned from each performance and how the audience behaved, as well as props and costumes used. Shakespeare’s Henry VI Part One and Titus Andronicus were both premiered at the Rose. Henry VI was particularly successful, earning him £3 16s 8d (£3.83) at the premiere, when average across that season was £1 14s (£1.73p).

Henslowe lived near the Clink prison and had investment interests in property speculation, pawnbroking and starch manufacturing. He formed a successful partnership with his actor son-in-law Edward Alleyn who became leader of a troupe of actors called the Admiral’s Men and took up residency at the Rose. After opening the Rose, the pair established other playhouses with Alleyn, including the Hope (on the site of the modern-day alley Bear Gardens on Bankside) and the Fortune (on the north bank of the Thames).     

The Rose appears to have fallen out of fashion and it was abandoned in 1606. Other new playhouses had opened up nearby on Bankside, including the Swan in 1595 which could hold three thousand people and was particularly celebrated (it is the only one of the four Bankside playhouses yet to have been discovered by archaeologists).

Alleyn probably retired from the stage at the same time as the Rose closed. He then concentrated on other business interests, as well as founding the almshouses and what is now Dulwich College.   

Disreputable reputation

But why were playhouses deemed so controversial?

In an age of considerable Puritan influence, one of the main complaints about plays was that they fostered immorality. “The cause of plagues is sin, if you look to it well: and the cause of sin are plays: therefore the cause of plagues are plays,” Thomas White noted in a sermon in 1577.

For others it wasn’t just the contents of the plays that was the problem. The audiences playhouses’ attracted and the potential for disorder that they brought caused concern. With such large numbers crossing the river to enjoy a show, the area became a prime spot for pickpocketing.

Meanwhile, prostitutes solicited for business in theatres. “The playhouse is their place of traffic, where Nightly they sit to sell their rotten ware,” wrote John Dryden in the 17^th century. Playhouse owners themselves, such as Philip Henslowe and Edward Alleyn, were known to also have financial interests in brothels.

Shakespeare made reference to brothels in his play Henry VI in which the Duke of Gloucester accused the Bishop of Winchester of giving “whores indulgence of sin” and he mocked the latter by calling him a ‘Winchester Goose’ which referred to both that of a prostitute and the swelling in the groin. The prostitution theme also features in a number other Shakespeare plays, including King Henry the Fourth and Measure for Measure.  

Rose re-discovered

Archaeologists discovered the Rose in 1989 during a dig ahead of the construction of a modern office block. Campaigners fought hard to protect the site and remains of the Elizabethan theatre are now preserved in the basement of that building. 

On open days illuminated strips of red lighting help provide visitors with an understanding of the scale of the theatre. You see where the outer walls would have been, the pit where playgoers stood and the position of the stage. The actual foundations are a metre below ground and are protected from the air.  

The Rose Theatre Trust – which cares for the site – is currently raising funds to allow for the excavation of the remaining third of the site. Once the project is complete, there are plans for a new exhibition space to be opened and there is the tantalising prospect of plays being performed on site of the original theatre.