London in 1616 was a city officially hostile to theatre in many respects – the powers that be did not allow the performance of plays within the city walls, with few exceptions. The map below shows an overview of where the playhouses of the time were located, although the four we have chosen to depict were not all active at exactly the same time, and some periods do not even overlap. The districts around them we have drawn are consistent in some respects, but still may be somewhat arbitrary. This map is intended to show these locations within the London context – the urban geography of the day – and possible connections and spatial relationships between districts, and potentially between other related features within the districts. The current version of the map only allows zooming and panning around the city, and switching between an historical and a modern base map. When the project is completed, it will allow users to click on features on the map to pop up information about each of them, as well as links to related documents, people, places and sources.
