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Ninety seconds on Shakespeare's Globe Theatre
The only thatched roof in central London tops this round, open-air wooden theatre, where the stage juts out into the crowd and the audience on the open floor stands at its edge for the whole play.
The theatre is a modern rebuild of Shakespeare's 1599 Globe, the dream of Sam Wanamaker. Finding the land, winning planning permission and raising the money took more than twenty years.
Like the original, it is a full circle of three covered galleries around a central space open to the sky.
Look closely at the frame. It is green oak, the wood the first builders used, and every joint is cut the old way and fixed with wooden pegs.
The two main pillars holding up the stage roof are painted to look like marble, and the canopy above the actors is painted to resemble the heavens. Full, the theatre holds 1,570 people, about 700 of them standing.
Shakespeare's Globe opens only at set times, for the daytime guided tour and for performances, and both are booked ahead. On the tour, a guide leads you into the theatre itself and up into the galleries by an external stair tower, then you finish in the exhibition at your own pace.
Plays usually start at 14:00 or 19:30. A standing ticket makes you a groundling, on the concrete floor of the open centre right by the stage, standing for the whole play. A gallery ticket is a covered bench, and only the back row of each gallery has a backrest.
You can come and go during a play without waiting for the interval, and buy food and drink to have in your place. Photography stops while the play is on and is allowed again at the interval and after.
The guided tour takes you into the theatre in the daytime. It runs about 50 minutes with a guide, always in English and suitable for all ages.
The guide covers the original theatre and how it was rebuilt on Bankside. On matinee days a tour may reach only the indoor Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, so if you want to see the open-air stage, check the day's listing before you book.
For a place at short notice, Rush tickets go on sale online at 11am each Friday for the following Monday to Sunday. Buyers get a random queue number, so join as the sale opens.
In a gallery, hire a cushion, blanket or seat back for the bench. For an afternoon play, book the right-hand side as you face the stage, which gets less sun. Stay in the seat you booked, even when the row below sits empty.
The site is cashless, so bring a card or phone, and leave glass at home because it is not allowed.
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