For information about the Bell Inn, Gracechurch Street, a modern map marking the site where the it once stood, and a walking tour that will take you to the site, visit ()’s article on Bell Inn, Gracechurch Street.

For information about the Bell Savage Inn, a modern map marking the site where the it once stood, and a walking tour that will take you to the site, visit the () article on Bell Savage Inn.

For information about the Black Bull Inn, Bishopsgate Street, a modern map marking the site where the it once stood, and a walking tour that will take you to the site, visit the () article on Black Bull Inn, Bishopsgate Street.

The history of the two Blackfriars theatres is long and fraught with legal and political struggles. The story begins in 1276, when King Edward I gave to the Dominican order five acres of land.

For information about the Cross Keys Inn, Gracechurch Street, a modern map marking the site where the it once stood, and a walking tour that will take you to the site, visit the () page on Cross Keys Inn, Gracechurch Street.

John Rastell built London’s first purpose-built stage on property fronting on Old Street in Finsbury (Giles-Watson 172). Although the name of the stage/playhouse, if it had one, is now lost, we find traces of its existence in the legal record.

For information about the Newington Butts, a modern map marking the site where the it once stood, and a walking tour that will take you to the site, visit the () article on Newington Butts.

Porter’s Hall was a shortlived theatre in Blackfriar’s Precinct. The theatre was opened in 1617 by Phillip Rosseter but closed shortly thereafter upon an order from the Privy Council (Sugden).

Salisbury Court Theatre was a private indoor theatre owned by Richard Gunnell and William Blagrove. According to Weinreb, the theatre was built in 1629 and was destroyed in the Great Fire (Weinreb 819).

For information about St. Paul’s Theatre, a modern map marking the site where the it once stood, and a walking tour that will take you to the site, visit the () article on St. Paul’s Theatre.

For information about the Boar’s Head, a modern map marking the site where the it once stood, and a walking tour that will take you to the site, visit the () article on the Boar’s Head.

The Cockpit, also known as the Phoenix, was an indoor commercial playhouse planned and built by the theatre entrepreneur and actor Christopher Beeston. The title pages of plays performed at the Cockpit usually refer to its location in Drury Lane, but G. E. Bentley offers a more precise description: Beeston’s property lay between Drury Lane and Great Wild Street, north-west of Princes’ Street in the parish of St Giles in the Fields (Bentley vi 49). Herbert Berry adds that the playhouse was three-eights of a mile west of the western boundary of the City of London at Temple Bar (Berry 624), and Frances Teague notes that it was on the east side of Drury Lane and that [t]he site was long preserved by the name of Cockpit Alley, afterwards Pitt Court (Teague 243).

The Cockpit-in-Court, or The Cockpit-at-Court, was a private Caroline playhouse for members of the royal household, and was located within Whitehall Palace. Its name arose from the fact that it was formerly a cockfighting site at court. It should not be confused with The Cockpit Theatre, which was located near Drury Lane.

In 1577, the Curtain, a second purpose-built London playhouse arose in Shoreditch, just north of the City of London. The Curtain, a polygonal amphitheatre, became a major venue for theatrical and other entertainments until at least 1622 and perhaps as late as 1698. Most major playing companies, including the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, the Queen’s Men, and Prince Charles’s Men, played there. It is the likely site for the premiere of Shakespeare’s plays and .

According to Weinreb, Hibbert, Keay, and Keay, the Fortune was built for Edward Alleyn and Philip Henslow in 1600. Above the door, there was a statue of the Goddess of Fortune (Weinreb, Hibbert, Keay, and Keay 305).

The Globe was the open-air, public theatre in which William Shakespeare was a shareholder. It was one of the theatres at which the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, later the King’s Men, regularly performed. Most of Shakespeare’s plays were performed at the Globe, along with the works of many other playwrights. It was an open-air, polygonal theatre with standing room around a thrust stage and three levels of gallery seating. It was built in 1599, burnt down in 1613, rebuilt in 1614 and closed in 1642. A modern reconstruction now stands a short distance from the site of the original in Bankside.

For information about the Hope, a modern map marking the site where the it once stood, and a walking tour that will take you to the site, visit the () article on the Hope.

For information about the Red Bull, a modern map marking the site where the it once stood, and a walking tour that will take you to the site, visit the () article on the Red Bull.

For information about the Red Lion, a modern map marking the site where the it once stood, and a walking tour that will take you to the site, visit the () article on the Red Lion.

Built in 1587 by theatre financier Philip Henslowe, the Rose was Bankside’s first open-air amphitheatre playhouse (Egan). Its foundation, excavated in 1989, reveals a fourteen-sided structure about 22 metres in diameter, making it smaller than other contemporary playhouses (White 302). Relatively free of civic interference and surrounded by pleasure-seeking crowds, the Rose did very well, staging works by such playwrights as Shakespeare, Marlowe, Kyd, and Dekker (Egan).

The Swan was the second of the Bankside theatres. It was located at Paris Garden. It was in use from 1595 and possibly staged some of the plays of William Shakespeare (SHaLT).

The first purpose-built playhouse in England, the Theatre, located in Shoreditch, was constructed in 1576 by actor James Burbage. While direct evidence of plays performed at the Theatre is rare, scholars have inferred that the playhouse was used by the Queen Elizabeth’s Men, Earl of Leicester’s Men, Earl of Warwick’s Men, Lord Strange’s Men, Admiral’s Men, Chamberlain’s Men, and Earl of Pembroke’s Men. In 1598, the Theatre was dismantled after a land dispute and was relocated to Bankside were it was erected as the Globe.

One of the lesser known halls or private playhouses of Renaissance London, the Whitefriars, was home to two different boy playing companies, each of which operated under several different names. Whitefriars produced many famous boy actors, some of whom later went on to greater fame in adult companies. At the Whitefriars playhouse in 1607–1608, the Children of the King’s Revels catered to a homogenous audience with a particular taste for homoerotic puns and situations, which resulted in a small but significant body of plays that are markedly different from those written for the amphitheatres and even for other hall playhouses.