British scholar confirms exact location of Shakespeare’s London residence

LONDON — A British scholar dug into 17th-century property deeds to confirm the exact location and dimensions of property in London owned by legendary playwright William Shakespeare.

Shakespeare expert Lucy Munro, of King’s College London, identified the location and size of the property the Bard bought in 1613, three years before his death, the BBC reported.

Munro told The Associated Press that the document supplies “extra bits of the jigsaw puzzle” of Shakespeare’s life.

“I came across it in the London Archives when I was looking for other things,” Munro said.

Munro found three documents -- two from the London Archives and one from the National Archives -- that gave her more information, according to the BBC. Two of the documents relate to the sale of the property by Shakespeare’s granddaughter in 1665, the news outlet reported.

Munro said finding the property, located near the Blackfriars Theatre, was a stroke of good luck, The New York Times reported. Scholars knew that Shakespeare lived in the area but were never sure of its precise location. A plaque on a 19th-century building notes that the playwright had lodgings “near this site.”

Many scholars believed that Shakespeare retired from his career not long after he bought the house and returned to Stratford-upon-Avon, the BBC reported. The new discovery means that the playwright spent more time in London than had been previously believed.

“This discovery throws into question the narrative that Shakespeare simply retired to Stratford,” Munro said, according to the Times. “It makes us think again about his relationship with London: Why would he want to buy property in London in 1613?”

Shakespeare used the profits of his plays to build a house in Stratford, about 100 miles northwest of London, the AP reported. He died there in 1616 at the age of 52.

Shakespeare wrote one of his lesser-known plays, “The Two Noble Kinsmen,” around the time he bought the London property, the newspaper reported.

Munro said it was “not inconceivable” that some of it was written at the London residence.

“One of the reasons I wonder whether he has an eye to using it for himself — at least a bit — is because it’s in the Blackfriars,” she said.

The district, which lies north of the Thames and includes the Blackfriar theater, was a gathering place for the King’s Men, the company of actors who performed many of Shakespeare’s plays, according to the Times.

“These findings really help us tell the complete story of Shakespeare’s Blackfriars house, and thanks to this new discovery we now know exactly where it stood,” Munro told the BBC.

© 2026 Cox Media Group