Rose Theatre Trust

The Rose Playhouse, located at fifty-six Park Street, survives today as a foundation of chalk and brick preserved beneath the modern Rose Court office building. Built in fifteen eighty-seven by entrepreneur Philip Henslowe, it was the first of many theatres to crowd the Bankside liberty, an area lying safely outside the restrictive jurisdiction of the City of London. This fourteen-sided timber playhouse hosted the earliest performances of plays by William Shakespeare, including his first tragedy, Titus Andronicus, as well as landmark works by Christopher Marlowe.