3 The Curtain

The Second London Playhouse

Make sure that you are standing at position (3) on the map.


The Curtain Theatre was built about a year after The Theatre in 1577.  It stayed open for forty five years, closing in 1622.

The Curtain Theatre is named after a curtain wall that surrounded a walled pasture near here. The Curtain was owned by a Henry Lanman.  When both theatres were working, James Burbage and Lanman agreed to share the profits of The Theatre and The Curtain for seven years, so it seems that they were not in direct competition at this time.

This theatre was used by The Lord Chamberlain's Men in 1598 and 1599, performing some of Shakespeare's plays, until the Globe was built. The exact position of the Curtain was only found a few years ago when a pavement consisting of lambs knuckle bones was found – see this image.

The site of the Curtain theatre is currently being developed, to include a 40-storey tower, providing 385 homes, 250,000 sq ft of office space and 50,000 sq ft of retail space.  The cost is estimated as around £750,000,000.

It has been promised that the historic remains of the Curtain will be preserved in a two-storey glass enclosure and will be shown next to a Shakespeare museum and an open-air performance space.

As of October 2016 the most interesting discovery is that the Curtain Theatre was rectangular, not a polygonal structure, as previously thought. The Curtain seems to have been built in the rectangular garden of a tenement (where the audience went in), with galleries for seating built down each side, and the stage across the bottom of the garden. Not a wooden 'O' after all!

Museum of London Archaeology have had access to do the excavation. Look at the MOLA web site to see the latest discoveries. http://www.mola.org.uk/search/site/curtain

The Curtain Theatre was also outside the City of London’s jurisdiction.  A quote from “Playes Confuted” by Stephen Gosson in 1582, although not mentioning the Curtain itself, gives a flavour of early play going at the time of the second Shoreditch playhouse:

'In the playhouses at London, it is the fashion of youths to go first into the yard, and to carry their eye through every gallery, then like ravens, where they spy the carrion thither they fly, and press as near to the fairest as they can... they give them apples, they dally with their garments to pass the time, they minister talk upon odd occasions, and either bring them home to their houses on small acquaintance, or slip into taverns when the plays are done.'



Now return to Curtain Road, and turn left. At the bend in the road continue into Appold Street. Turn left into Primrose Street and halfway along turn right and walk up the steps under the building.

See the Broadgate Venus statue over to the left. It weighs five tons, and was made by Fernando Botero, a Columbian artist in 1990. It is said to represent City greed.

Go right towards Appold Street angain and go down steps.  Go past  the Broad Family statue.  This is made of Basalt by the Spanish artist Xavier Corbero in 1988.   Look for the shoes and dog!

Turn left into Appold Street again. Go past All Bar One, then turn left at Starbucks and walk into the space between the buildings.

When you get to the square with Goucho’s in it, go to the opposite corner and see the Rush  Hour statue made by the American artist, George Segal in 1987.  Segal encased real people in plaster and used that to mould the statue.

Straight on down Finsbury Avenue past the statue Belleraphon taming Pegasus statue, made in 1977 by Jacques Lipchitz, a Lithuanian Cubist.





Turn right at Eldon Street (near Maplins).  Eldon Street turns into South Place.  At the junction with Moorgate turn left and continue to London Wall. At London Wall, turn right and continue until you reach Noble Street on the left (marked 4 on the map)