Rediscovery
The Rose’s well-preserved archaeology was discovered in 1989 during a routine exploratory excavation held in the interval between site clearance and re-development of an office block. The Rose became a major international news story, and the site attracted many thousands of visitors.
A campaign to ‘Save The Rose’ and protect it from redevelopment was launched with enthusiastic support from scholars, the general public, and many renowned actors, including the dying Lord Olivier, whose last public speech was on behalf of The Rose.
WATCH: Sir Ian McKellen narrates a short film about the history of The Rose Playhouse, its rediscovery in 1989 and the campaign to save its remains, and explains what the archaeology of the site has revealed to us. (22 mins)
Archeological exploration
In 1988, part of the site became available for investigation following the demolition of a 1950s office block, Southbridge House. Development up to the 1950s had been sufficiently non-intrusive to permit a remarkably high degree of archaeological survival, despite the relatively insubstantial nature of the theatre’s construction. The marshy riverine site also assisted organic preservation. By May 1989, archaeologists from the Museum of London had uncovered some two thirds of the theatre’s ground plan.
This indicated that The Rose as built in 1587 was a relatively small, slightly irregular structure, based on the geometry of a fourteen-sided polygon. The chalk and stone foundations of its outer and inner walls survived, together with some sections of brickwork. The yard of the theatre had a mortar floor which sloped down towards the stage, presumably to allow audiences at the back an unobstructed view, and to help drain what was a naturally wet site.
The position of the stage was clearly marked, and a large timber box-drain that carried water away to its north had also survived. Remains of a tiled floor from a smaller separate building were found in the southwest corner of the site. This seems to have been an existing house mentioned in a catering contract of 1587, which the grocer John Cholmley planned to use as the basis of his catering operation. There was also evidence of substantial later alterations to the stage and the northern half of the theatre, elongating the shape of the auditorium from a circular plan to a flat oval.
More than 700 small objects, finds and structural remains were also found on the site, and are now part of the London Museum collection. They include jewellery, coins, tokens, and fragments of the money-boxes used to collect entrance money from the audience.
The remaining eastern third of the theatre’s ground plan could not be explored in 1989, since it was still occupied by the City of London’s Technical Services Depot. When the new office building, Rose Court, was erected over the theatre site, the dedicated basement space that provided for the future display of the archaeology of The Rose was extended eastwards, in order to incorporate all the presumed area of the original playhouse itself.
However, it did not include the original eastern boundary of the Little Rose estate, which is located within the space between the eastern wall of the display space and the western side of the Southwark bridge approach ramp, inside the remaining area of the city’s Depot.
A trial excavation carried out there in 2001 by the RTT with the co-operation of the City and funded by English Heritage revealed a portion of the original boundary ditch and suggested that the level of archaeological survival on this side of the theatre site up to and including the ditch is as complete and potentially as significant as the survival to the west indicated by the 1989 excavation.
The archeological remains superimposed on a reconstruction of the original site, with the outline of the 1592 expansion of The Rose highlighted in red.
The Save The Rose campaign
After this historic rediscovery, a battle followed to save the remains of The Rose Playhouse and to begin the journey towards archeological preservation. On Sunday 14 May 1989 – the day before the property developers IMRY were due to take back control of The Rose site from the archeologists of the Museum of London – people assembled on Park Street from the afternoon into the night, to protect the remains and debate the way forward.
The chief demands were for The Rose to be scheduled as an Ancient Monument, and that the developers delay their work until agreement could be reached on a new design – one that would fully protect and preserve the site, and prevent piles from being driven into any significant part of it.
Actors including Judi Dench, Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart, Ralph Fiennes, Dustin Hoffman, Timothy Dalton and Alan Rickman came to give their support, and a rallying cry from Sir Laurence Olivier, just weeks away from his death, was played to the assembled crowd.
The campaign succeeded in its initial aims. The Rose’s remains were scheduled as an Ancient Monument, and although the building of an office block over the site continued, the building was redesigned to preserve the archeology, and to allow the rest of the site to one day be fully excavated.
A photograph of Laurence Olivier as Henry V, signed ‘To the Rose Theatre, with countless fervent wishes for a happy future’. (Rose Theatre Trust)
WATCH: Video footage of the 1989 Save The Rose campaign. (2 mins)
Preservation
The Rose Playhouse holds a very special place in the history of archaeological science – it is one of the key sites where the science of archaeological preservation on site was born and developed, paving the way for many important sites to be preserved around the world.
This came about following the passion to protect the site following its discovery in 1989. The archaeological team realised it was not enough simply to cover the site back over. The remains of the Rose contain both organic and inorganic elements such as wood and chalk, and the site needs to be kept wet to preserve these organic elements, which are the more difficult to successfully preserve. A carefully designed scheme of Buckland sand containing a leaky pipe seals the deposits, under a layer of plastic sheeting and weak mix concrete into which water is gradually fed. The ‘pond’ this creates prevents evaporation of water from below, ensuring that water surrounds the archaeological remains and excludes oxygen. Oxygen would allow soil microbes to thrive, which would then feed on the remains we are trying to preserve.
The conditions are monitored monthly to ensure all is well, and the Historic England Inspector of Ancient Monuments dons her rubber waders and collects water samples from a series of dipwells across the site. The water level, pH, temperature, conductivity and redox potential are measured, as well as saturation levels of the archaeological layers, and the protective sand above. By continuing to monitor the site, we can be sure that conditions are suitable to allow the remains to remain preserved safely below ground.
Current status
Interior view of the current site, looking from the south-west corner of the building across the flooded remains up towards the viewing platform.
The Rose can tell the visitor much about its life between 1587 and 1603. Red rope lights laid around the site indicate the size of the original playhouse, its courtyard or pit, and the position of its two stages. There is a viewing platform from which these lights can be seen, and an exhibition about – not only The Rose, but about the area of Bankside which it occupied in the late 1590s and early 1600s.
Since its rediscovery, the site has also been used for public performances.
The very first of these was a production of Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus, staged by The Lion’s Part theatre company, directed by Sonia Ritter, with Anton Lesser as Faustus and David Bradley as Mephistopheles, which opened with a Charity Premiere on Wednesday 29 August 2001 – the very first performance within the walls of The Rose since 1605.
Many other productions followed, until the pandemic forced The Rose’s closure as a venue in 2020, and it remained closed during redevelopment of the outside of the building in 2022-24.
With that work now complete, the site has now reopened for a limited number of public events, which you can find on our what’s on page.
To learn more about the history of The Rose and what the archeology revealed about its size and shape, as well as the wealth of other information that survives about the playhouse, visit our resources page.
Or you can find out what events are coming up, or discover more about the exciting plans we have in store for our future.