Why did William Shakespeare move to London?

Answer 1

Nobody really knows. There are theories though:

• His hometown, Stratford-upon-Avon, was no place to get into the theatre business. So he decided to move to a place where he could find work in that field.
• He married too early and later realised he didn't love his wife, so he ran away to save her from a miserable marriage.
• He was in financial ruin and had to escape to avoid being caught up with by debt collectors.
• The most romantic, but least likely, theory is that he shot a deer while hunting, not realising it belonged to an English Politician, Sir Thomas Lucy, who ordered Shakespeare's arrest as a result, prompting him to flee to London.

London was the cultural centre of England at that time, so it was the logical place for Shakespeare to reside.

Answer 2

When the lease on the Globe theater expired, the landlord wanted to tear the building down and put the lumber and stone to better use. After trying to renegotiate the lease, and failing, the company found a little-known clause in the lease. They would be allowed to dismantle the building themselves. When the landlord went on holiday to the countryside, the company and a group of workmen dismantled the building, took it across the Thames, and constructed the Globe.

Answer 3

Well actually, Richard and Cuthbert Burbage, the owners of the Theatre (built in the 1570s), dismantled it because their Puritan landlord would not allow them to put on plays in it. They hired a friend and carpenter and his workmen to take it apart in the middle of the night and the Burbages, the carpenter and his men carried pieces of timber across the frozen Thames. The carpenter, Peter Street, built a new theatre south of the Thames using the pieces of the dismantled Theatre, and they called it the Globe.

What did Shakespeare have to do with all this? Precious little. He did contribute money to help fund the construction costs.

Answer 4

He was looking for work. Either it was difficult to get a good enough job in Stratford and the prospects were better in London, or Shakespeare was already interested in a career in theatre which meant he had to go to where the theatres were. In either case, he was looking for a job.

Answer 5

They weren't all located there. Some were located north of the City as well. The Theatre, the first successful purpose-built theatre in London, was built north of the city, as was the Curtain Theatre, which was also home to the Lord Chamberlain's Men. Henslowe and Alleyn built The Fortune in the north as well, a bit further west from the Theatre and Curtain. The theatres in the south were not all built on Bankside either. Newington Butts was a considerable distance down the road, far enough away to be out of the plague areas when there was a plague in London.

What all these locations had in common was that they were not in the City of London, the one-square-mile area bounded on the south by the Thames, on the east by the Tower of London, and on the west and north by the city wall. Within that heavily populated area the civic government did not allow the construction of theatres which would draw crowds of thousands. They did allow, at about the turn of the century, groups of children to perform in small indoor theatres, which they did. By 1608 they allowed the King's Men to perform in the small indoor theatre called The Blackfriars. After Shakespeare's retirement, The Cockpit was another indoor theatre licenced in the City.

Southwark, or Bankside, was a popular area for the construction of theatres and other places of entertainment. The Rose, Swan, Globe and Hope theatres were built there. Transport by boat across the river was readily available, as was London Bridge, and the area was close and convenient. It was also home to a number of pubs, bear and bull baiting rings and brothels, if a person wanted to add further entertainment to an afternoon of theatre.

Answer 6

Presumably to get a job. He might have found it hard to get work in Stratford.

Answer 7

Tax probably, the gorvernment made them move because the company couldn't pay bills

Answer 8

A long standing dispute over ownership and an expired lease.

Answer 9

Nope. Chuck Testa