Secret Bankside: Walks in the Outlaw Borough

LONDON’S FIRST PURPOSE-BUILT PLAYHOUSES, The Theatre and The Curtain, date from 1576. They were in Shoreditch to the north – and outside the walls – of The City of London. By the end of the 16th Century, they had been joined by The Fortune in the Finsbury Liberty, a designated area also outside the City walls, and, here on Bankside, by The Rose, The Swan, The Globe and The Hope. The location of all these theatres, beyond the jurisdiction of The City proper, was no accident. In Shakespeare’s time, theatres, along with bear-pits and brothels – or ‘stews’ – were forbidden within the City walls. In the eyes of its moral guardians, actors and whores were natural bedfellows, both equally liable to deprave its citizens. The Lord Mayor eve