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 thousands of visitors.
A campaign to ‘Save The Rose’ was launched to protect it from redevelopment, with enthusiastic support from the general public, academics, archaeologists, and theatre lovers worldwide, including many renowned actors. Among them was the dying Lord Olivier, whose last public speech was on behalf of The Rose.
To learn more, read on…
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.
The excavated archeological remains superimposed on a reconstruction of the original site, with the outline of the 1592 expansion of The Rose highlighted in red.
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.
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.
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.
Money-Box fragments found at The Rose
Photo: A. Chopping © Museum of London Archaeology
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.
Aerial view of the excavated site in 1989, with onlookers standing at the south side, on Park Street.
(Photo: © Andrew Fulgoni Copyrights Ltd. / The Rose Theatre Trust)
A signed postcard of Laurence Olivier as Henry V
‘To the Rose Theatre, with countless fervent wishes for a happy future’.
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.
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.
WATCH: Lord Olivier’s rallying cry to the Save The Rose campaign in 1989. (2 mins)
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.
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.
To learn how archeological remains were preserved, and find out about the current status of The Rose, read on.