The Rose

The Rose was an Elizabethan playhouse built in 1587 by Philip Henslowe in Bankside, Southwark. It stood outside the City of London’s control in the Liberty of the Clink, near the Thames. The area already drew crowds for bear-baiting and other entertainments. Henslowe chose the site so playgoers could cross the river easily. The theatre was named after a nearby rose garden and had a fourteen-sided timber frame with a thatched roof. Plays by Shakespeare, Marlowe and other leading dramatists were performed there. The Lord Admiral’s Men, led by Edward Alleyn, made the Rose their home from 1594. In its busiest year they staged nearly three hundred performances of thirty-six plays. The stage was later enlarged to seat more spectators, but the Globe’s arrival in 1599 shifted the audience north. Archaeologists uncovered the Rose’s remains in 1989 beneath an office site. After a campaign to save them, the ruins became a scheduled monument and an exhibition space. Today visitors see exposed foundations and displays about Elizabethan theatre life. The Rose Playhouse Trust plans further excavation and a new arts centre.