(Web Desk) - Shakespeare’s long-lost London home has finally been pinpointed shedding new light on the legendary English playwright’s later years.
For years historians have been baffled about where The Bard lived during his highly famed life in the capital.
Many believed Shakespeare had simply returned to his birth town Stratford-upon-Avon to retire.
It has long been known that he owned a property in Blackfriars in later life, though exactly where has been a complete mystery.
So much so, there’s a blue plaque on a 19th-century building to indicate where Shakespeare might have lived that only says it was “near” a quiet Blackfriars street.
But new evidence in the form of floor plans have revealed that exactly where he owned a property.
The key clue was uncovered by a surprised professor who was actually doing research on two London playhouses.
She found three documents – two from The London Archives and one from The National Archives – revealing not only the exact location of the property Shakespeare bought in 1613 but also the layout and size. One of the papers show a plan for the Blackfriars precinct that dates back to 1668.
The property was a pretty big L-shaped building carved from a former medieval monastery and once included a gatehouse.
And it was close to his theatre and a pub too.
Sadly, the original building was destroyed by the Great Fire of London.
Records show that Shakespeare’s granddaughter Elizabeth Hall Nash Barnard sold the property in 1665 – just one year before the tragic events that burnt down 13,200 houses.
“This discovery throws into question the narrative that Shakespeare simply retired to Stratford and spent no more time in the city,” said Professor Lucy Munro, an expert on all things Shakespeare from King’s College London who found the docs.
“It has sometimes been thought that he bought his Blackfriars property merely as an investment, but we don’t know that this is true, or that he never used it for himself.
“After all, he could have bought an investment property anywhere in London, but this house was close to his workplace at the Blackfriars theatre.”
The plans confirm that his London home stood at what is now the eastern end of Ireland Yard, the foot of Burgon Street, and parts of the buildings at 5 Burgon Street and 5 St Andrew’s Hill.
Therefore the existing plaque is not “near” where he lived but exactly on it.
“We know that Shakespeare co-authored ‘Two Noble Kinsmen’ with John Fletcher later in 1613, and this new evidence that the Blackfriars house was quite substantial makes it not inconceivable that some of it may have been written in this very property,” Professor Munro added.
“We also know that Shakespeare was visiting London in November 1614 – is it not likely that he stayed in his own house?”
Shakespeare died in Stratford-upon-Avon at the age of 52.