Shakespeare's Birthplace

Plus, new for summer 2025: experience our new exhibition ‘Becoming Shakespeare’, exploring the impact of place on the creative spark of William Shakespeare.

About Shakespeare’s Birthplace

John Shakespeare, William’s father, lived and worked as a glovemaker in the house known today as Shakespeare’s Birthplace. John married Mary Arden in about 1557, and William was born in 1564, the third of their eight children and the first boy. William was the first child to survive out of infancy, with his older 2 sisters dying before their first birthday.

In 1568 John became the high bailiff of Stratford, one of the highest elective office in the town. It was because of his father’s status that William was privileged enough to have attended the local grammar school. William’s 3 younger brothers are also believed to have attended the same school.

In 1582, at the age of 18, William married Anne Hathaway. It is believed that the young couple continued to live with his parents in the Birthplace or in the house next door, a one-up-one-down built in 1582 that also belonged to John. Their own children, Susanna in 1583 and Judith and Hamnet in 1585 were born in the house they lived in on Henley Street. Unfortunately, in 1596 it is also where Hamnet died at the age of 11 years old, cause unknown.

John Shakespeare died in 1601 and as the eldest son, William inherited the house. He leased the small, two-room cottage adjoining the main house to his sister, Joan Hart. The remainder of the family home was also leased and became an inn, called the Maidenhead. It was later renamed the Swan and Maidenhead Inn, which remain in operation until 1846.

When Shakespeare died in 1616, he left the property to his eldest daughter Susanna, and in turn, when she died, she left it to her only child, Elizabeth Hall. When Elizabeth died in 1670 the house passed to a descendant of Joan Hart. The Hart family owned the property until 1806 when it was sold to Thomas Court, a butcher (You can see a piece of Cow bone in the original stone floor of the Parlour from this time period still). The whole property was put up for sale in 1846, following the death of Court’s widow.

In order to save the building, where William Shakespeare was born, a public campaign was launched, supported by Charles Dickens. The property was purchased at auction by the Shakespeare Committee in 1847 for £3,000 and by an act of governance in 1891, the committee was renamed the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. We have cared for it ever since.

For the official guidebook of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust visit our online shop.

See our Opening Times page to help plan your visit.