Shakespeare's Globe New Research and Collections Centre

“One of the most pleasing aspects of the welcome the Research and Collections Centre has received is that visitors frequently say the space feels like it’s been here all along. In a way, it has: Shakespeare’s Globe has a proud history of scholarly research and accessible knowledge-sharing that goes back decades. But the feelings of warm familiarity conjured up by our new foyer, lecture theatre and reading rooms is a testament to excellent and informed design by architects Allies and Morrison, as well as to the eagerness with which our visitors have made use of the facilities. Learning and research at the Globe has truly found a home.”  - Dr Will Tosh (Director of Education)

Research has always been at the heart of Shakespeare’s Globe. Our story began with diligent research into the design of the original Globe Theatre, an exemplar of traditional craftsmanship, that enabled us to produce the world’s most accurate full-scale replica of Shakespeare’s original Elizabethan open-air theatre. 16 years after building the Globe, and after meticulous scrutiny of the earliest known plans, we opened the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse - an archetype of an indoor Jacobean theatre. 

Research underpins our historically informed playhouses and continues to inform our approaches to performance. The Globe has been referred to as “the world’s largest ever arts and humanities research project”. We are the only theatre in the world with full-time resident academics, housing a diverse cohort of in-house distinguished scholars with an international reach.

As pioneers of practice-led research - the methodologies of workshop and experimentation - we wish to create a publicly accessible space to represent and share our dedicated research.

Our unique resources and expertise will enable us to be an impactful, diverse, inclusive and welcoming space for enquiry, practice and knowledge exchange.

This new space for Research & Collections will be comprised of a climate controlled Rare Books Room & Costume Store, both of which will utilise the structure of the space to display and showcase our institutional collections to their maximum potential.

Critically, this space will provide a long-anticipated home for a Rare Books Collection, bequeathed to the Globe back in the early 90’s. The collection includes a First Folio - the first collected edition of William Shakespeare's plays, collated and published in 1623. It is believed that 750 or fewer copies of the First Folio were printed; 235 survive today and only 24 are in private ownership.

Directly off the foyer at 21 New Globe Walk, and with its own highly visible entrance it will also provide an inspirational and very practical space for the hundreds of thousands of groups we receive to site each year. This social space will be a dedicated area for animated and energetic interaction, such as touch tours and live demonstrations. Light and spacious, with comfortable seating, it will be particularly welcoming to families and young children. 

Finally, the original lecture theatre will become a state-of-the-art hybrid space for lectures, seminars, teaching, screenings and debates. This underground hive will inspire the next generation - from students, researchers, scholars, to actors, artists, creatives, to children, families, cultural tourists or anyone with an interest in life-long learning.