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Although Shakespeare’s plays were performed at other venues during the playwright’s career, the Globe Theatre in the Southwark district of London was the venue at which the Bard’s best known stage works (including his four great tragedies) were first produced. The Globe was built during Shakespeare’s early period in 1599 by one of his long-standing associates, Cuthbert Burbage. In 1597, Cuthbert Burbage inherited another London theater that was the first of its kind …

…tenements upon the premises. Thus, Cromwell’s round heads tore down the Globe, leveled the site and constructed tenement housing upon it. In 1993, the late Sam Wanamaker saw the beginning of construction on a new Globe theatre near the site of the original. This last Globe Theatre was completed in 1996, and was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II in May of 1997. The new Globe is as faithful a reproduction as possible to the Elizabethan model.