London - Shakespeare's Globe Theatre & Exhibition

The Globe Theatre is being rebuilt as the centerpiece of the International Shakespeare Globe Centre, an educational and entertainment facility inspired by the late actor and director, Sam Wanamaker. Visitors can sit on benches or stand in the yard to watch plays performed in daylight just as they were four centuries ago. There is room for an audience of 1,500.

Craftsmen used Elizabethan building techniques and traditional materials such as green oak, brick, lime, goat's hair and water-reeds to reconstruct this Tudor theater. The original theater was built in 1599 in Southwark. It was destroyed by fire in 1613 when a spark from a stage canon set light to the thatched roof during a performance of Henry VIII. In the undercroft of The Globe time capsules are buried which have been sent from schools around the world. They contain memorabilia such as programs and props from high school Shakespeare productions.

The Shakespeare's Globe Exhibition presents the story of William Shakespeare's workplace - the Elizabethan bankside, London's first entertainment district. Guided tours explain how scholars, architects and archaeologists have worked to ensure an authentic reconstruction of The Globe, which is often referred to as the 'Wooden O' because of its magnificent circular thatched roof.