William Shakespeare’s missing London home has been located in Blackfriars

A researcher has pinpointed the exact location of William Shakespeare’s lost London home; It was a mystery that has baffled historians for centuries.

The property is located in the Blackfriars district of London, near the River Thames, according to a recent press release from King’s College London (KCL).

The property includes the area now known as Ireland Yard and 5 St. Blackfriars. It covered parts of Burgon Street, including the area around Andrew’s Hill.

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Professor Lucy Munro, professor of Shakespeare and early modern literature at KCL, identified the location by uncovering a previously overlooked map from 1668.

From there, Munro linked the ownership to a chain of property records dating back to Shakespeare.

“I was doing research as part of a wider project and couldn’t believe it when I realized what I was looking at: a floor plan of Shakespeare’s Blackfriars house,” the professor told KCL.

The exact location of the property “has baffled scholars since the 18th century” but scholars have long known that Shakespeare owned property at Blackfriars later in his life, the university said.

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“It has long been thought that shortly after purchasing the house of Blackfriars in 1613, Shakespeare retired from his London theatrical career and returned to Stratford-upon-Avon, where he lived a comfortable life as a gentleman,” KCL’s statement said. The statement was included.

“However, this discovery may indicate that Shakespeare spent more time in London in his later years than previously thought.”

Researchers have traced the possible location of William Shakespeare’s long-lost London home to the Blackfriars area, placing it near the area where prominent playhouses operated throughout his career. (Pictured via Mike Kemp/Getty Images)

Speaking to Fox News Digital, Munro said he was “confident” his discovery showed the exact location of Shakespeare’s property.

The professor said the “continuous paper trail” from 1613 to 1667 confirmed that the precise location of the property was supported by deeds, rental records and a map prepared shortly after the Great Fire of London in 1666.

The documents also shed light on how Shakespeare might have used the property, but it is not entirely clear.

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“I think the 1668 plan encourages us to re-evaluate how he might have used it, because it gives us a much clearer idea of ​​what that might have been like,” he said.

“This shows that the house is L-shaped, with a section running back from St Andrew’s Hill to the north of the gate. This section is approximately 58 square metres. [624 square feet]and it was probably two stories high, as part of it was erected over the door.”

“It is exciting to realize that there are still new things to discover about Shakespeare’s life and career.”

He added that although the property “clearly had the potential to be subdivided” there was evidence to suggest Shakespeare may have intended to use the London property himself and not just as an investment.

Munro said: “We know from his will that he rented the house in 1616, as he mentions his tenant, John Robinson, but when Shakespeare bought the house he seems to have made some effort to obtain it with vacant possession”, meaning there were no occupied tenants.

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He added: “One copy of the sales document mentions a tenant living there, but this clause has been crossed out and does not appear in the other copy. … So Shakespeare may have purchased the house with the intention of living there or renting part of it and using the other part for himself.”

Researchers used historical deeds and records dating back to 1613 to locate William Shakespeare’s former estate at Blackfriars in London. (Aaron Chown/PA images via Getty Images)

The house is also less than a five-minute walk from the Blackfriars Theatre, where Shakespeare worked and co-wrote plays. “It suggests that we need to re-evaluate what he did in 1613,” Munro says.

That year “is generally regarded in scholarship as a kind of gradual retirement to Stratford, but I think this view is partly conditioned by the fact that we know that he died in 1616 – he clearly did not know this!”

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So “his purchase of a significant house in the Blackfriars area complicates matters as he suggests he has an ongoing professional and significant investment in London.”

Munro stated that future excavations in the area were “unlikely at this stage” and noted that a previous survey there had not uncovered any archaeological remains, but this did not mean that the research would not continue.

Researchers have identified the likely location of William Shakespeare’s long-lost home in London’s Blackfriars district, placing it near the site of once-historic theaters throughout his career, pictured at left. (MOLA/Getty Images; Stock Montage/Getty Images)

“I would like to know more about Shakespeare’s intentions when he bought it and whether his daughter and grandson stayed there, but it is very difficult to recover these things from mostly surviving documents, such as property transactions,” Munro added, noting that there was still some potential to find out who Shakespeare’s neighbors in 1613 were.

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“It is exciting to realize that, despite more than two centuries of work by many brilliant biographers, archaeologists, social historians, and others, there is still much new to learn about Shakespeare’s life and career.”