The Globe Theatre was built in 1599 in London by Shakespeare's playing company and was destroyed by fire in 1613. It was rebuilt the following year and closed in 1642. The Globe was owned by actors and shareholders who used timber from an older theatre to construct it. Images and drawings reveal the Globe was a three-story, hexagonal structure with an open center courtyard that could hold over 1,500 people across its galleries and yard.

2. • The Globe Theatre was a theatre in
London associated with William
Shakespeare. It was built in 1599 by
Shakespeare's playing company, the
Lord Chamberlain's Men, and was
destroyed by fire on 29 June 1613. A
second Globe Theatre was built on the
same site by June 1614 and closed in
1642.

4. • The Globe was owned by actors who were also
shareholders in Lord Chamberlain's Men. The
Globe was built in 1599 using timber from an
earlier theatre, The Theatre, which had been
built by Richard Burbage's father, James
• Burbage, in Shoreditch in 1576. The Burbages
originally had a 21-year lease of the site on
which The Theatre was built but owned the
building outright.

5. • The exterior appearance of the Globe can only be
pieced together from sketches of the theatre
found in sweeping Elizabethan city scenes, and
the interior appearance from the drawing of the
Swan Theatre. From these images we can
describe the Globe as a hexagonal structure with
an inner court about 55 feet across. It was three-
stories high and had no roof. The open courtyard
and three semicircular galleries could together
hold more than 1,500 people.