The Globe Theatre Thatched Roof

Thatchers this week start work repairing the roof of shakespeare s globe on bankside with 800 bundles of sedge from the norfolk broads and 10 000 english hazel spars.

The globe theatre thatched roof.

When it was built in 1996 the replica of the original theatre became the city s first thatched. Shakespeare s globe in 1996 the bankside playhouse became the first thatched building in london since the great fire 330 years earlier. Swift reconstruction did take place and the globe reopened to the public within a year with the addition of a tiled roof. Work to replace the thatched roof of the iconic shakespeare s globe theatre in london has begun.

When shakespeare s playhouse burned down on 29 june 1613 the original globe theatre in london where most of william shakespeare s plays debuted was destroyed by fire during a performance of all is true known to modern audiences as henry viii. On june 29 1613 during a performance of henry viii a misfired canon ball set the globe s thatched roof on fire and the whole theatre was consumed. The thatched roof of the new globe was a subject of much debate as roof thatching had been outlawed after the great fire of london in 1666. Built of english oak like the original shakespeare s globe theatre was constructed with absolutely no structural steel.

Historians scholars and architects all worked together in their efforts to build the globe in the same way the lord chamberlain s men did down to the green oak pillars and thatched roof.