Blackfriars was a fashionable district on the north side of the Thames, close to St Paul's Cathedral. Blackfriars, having real stone-paved streets, and a noticeable absence of mud, was a more desirable location for theatre-goers in London’s cold, hard winters. The neighborhood was also home to The Royal Wardrobe, The Master of The Revels, some court officials and the Royal Treasurer. More than a few of the locals were very unhappy when Shakespeare's company took up their winter residence in Blackfriars Monastery. The arrival of reveling audiences during the winter months were said to last "from one or two of the clock till six at night", so that "inhabitants cannot come to their houses, nor bring in their necessary provisions... without danger of their lives and limbs."

Southwark was an area that was undergoing aggressive development by speculators in Shakespeare’s time. Crowded tene

The beginning of Elizabeth's reign was favored by a largely healthy economy, but by the last decade of her reign the economy declined. As a result, crime and vagrancy became a great concern of the state. Largely because of land enclosures, there was a large, shifting population of unemployed men and women throughout the country, especially in London. "Masterless men" were seen as a serious threat to the stability of society. They had no place in the ideal order, and in the practical order of things they were likely to commit crime to stay alive. Many soldiers returned from fighting overseas injured and unable to work, inevitably becoming beggars on crutches. Poor harvests combined with outbreaks of the plague and influenza caused agricultural prices to climb while wages dropped to a level not seen for three hundred and forty years. Approximately four fifths of England's population of four million fell below the subsistence level. While many people were forced to rely on the help of the Church in the form of parish relief, government aid was meager, and existing laws and institutions proved insufficient to the task of dealing with the poor.

ments were going up as fast as they could build them. Houses were being divided up into apartments and gardens were rapidly disappearing beneath building extensions. The streets and alleys were bursting with life. The area was also home to industries like tanneries and glass works, and the usual variety of interesting odors and pollution that accompany such processes. The population explosion in turn attracted the Theatre to the area. Southwark became the home of the Globe, The Rose and The Swan. Surrounding the theatres were more than 300 inns and alehouses where guests could eat, drink, gamble and sleep. There were also other fine sources of entertainment, for example bowling, the more questionable spectator sports of bear-baiting and bull-baiting and the morally dubious interactive entertainments of the brothels. So much a national institution were the sports of bear-baiting and bull-baiting by mastiff dogs that there was an office of the Court instructed to oversee and encourage them.Many of Shakespeare's great tavern scenes and the characters that inhabit them were created during his stay in Southwark.

Shoreditch lies a mile outside the old walls of London on the road that passed through Bishopsgate. Being beyond the jurisdiction of the city proved useful in a time when the Puritans viewed actors on the stage as an affront to the Protestant religion. Shoreditch was a rough area where visitors would be well advised to wear a sword at all times. Bars and theatres attract many revelers and, along with them, the ever-present prostitutes, thieves, cutpurses and con men.

London Bridge was travelers' main access to London city. Its southern gates also served as a warning point to those who would threaten the authorities: heads of traitors, pierced through sticks, were displayed above the gates. The bridge itself was home to many shops and beneath, watermen had occasion to show off their boating skills weaving through the narrow arches. The Bridge also had substantial historical significance: in 1450, Jack Cade entered the city by it. In another turbulent moment of England's history, Sir Thomas Wyatt marched on London in 1553 to protest Queen Mary's marriage to Philip of Spain. His plan failed when he could not access London Bridge; the drawbridge had been cut down and the gates shut. The Tower of London, ancient fortress in London, England, just east of the City and on the north bank of the Thames, covering about 13 acres, now used mainly as a museum, was a royal residence in the Middle Ages. Later it was a jail for illustrious prisoners. The Tower is enclosed by a dry moat; within which are double castellated walls surrounding the central White Tower.

Some topics in this essay:
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