LONDON (Kashmir English): The authorities have identified the long-lost residence associated with English poet and playwright William Shakespeare in London after 400 years.
Historians have had been striving to establish where William Shakespeare resided at the height of his fame, with some opining that he returned to his family home only upon retirement.
Shakespeare’s family home has been demolished. For decades, Shakespeare was believed to have owned property in Blackfriars during the final years of his life, though the full address remained inexact.
A blue plaque affixed to a 19th-century building near a quiet street in Blackfriars has pointed to the location, with new evidence now coming to light following research into two London playhouses.
Shakespeare purchased the property in 1613
During the course of this effort, a professor obtained three documents, two from the London Archives and one from the National Archives, which outline the precise location, layout and size of the property purchased by Shakespeare in 1613.
In unrelated reports circulating at the time, a wife, following a domestic dispute, threw large sums of money out of a window, with footage later shared widely.
One of the documents refers to a development plan drawn up in 1668 for the Blackfriars area of London.
The records termed a former large L-shaped building situated near a theatre and a public house, which was later destroyed in a fire.
The documents further suggested that one year prior to the fire in 1665, Shakespeare’s granddaughter, Elizabeth Hall Nash Barnard, sold the property.
