56 Park Street, SE1 (020 7593 0026)
London Bridge or Cannon Street tube/rail. Open 10am-5pm daily (last entry 4.30pm). Admission ?3; ?2 5s-15s; ?2.50 students, OAPs, disabled. Credit MC, V.
Website: http://www.rdg.ac.uk/rose
The remains of the
sixteenth-century Rose, the first of four playhouses to be built at
Bankside, were rediscovered in 1989 during excavations on a site where
new office buildings were due to be erected. The extensive remnants,
some two-thirds of the original site, would have been built over were
it not for the campaigning of a group of actors, scholars and ordinary
theatre-loving punters. Currently there’s a sound and light exhibition,
with a video narrated by Sir Ian McKellan, aimed at raising awareness
of the Rose. In the longer term, the Rose Theatre Trust wants to see
the site fully excavated (during which time the public can watch the
archaeologists at work) and open to all – this is pending further
funding being raised.
