Rose Playhouse Timeline
24 March 1585
Phillip Henslowe signs a lease for a garden plot on the Little Rose property on Bankside
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10 January 1587
Henslowe signs a deed of partnership with grocer John Cholmley, giving him the rights to sell food and drink, and a half share of the profits from the “playhouse now in framing and shortly to be erected”
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29 Oct 1587
Privy Council complains plays are taking place on Sundays “within the liberty of the Clink and in the parish of St Saviour in Southwark”, showing The Rose was open before this date
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c. 1590
Strange’s Men petition the Privy Council to be allowed “the use of our playhouse on the Bankside” again, rather than be forced to tour in the summer.
The watermen, who ferry people across the Thames, likewise petition for The Rose to be allowed to reopen
The Privy Council grants their requests
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1591-2
Rose Playhouse enlarged
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Feb to June 1592
Henslowe’s records of performances and box-office takings survive from this point
Strange’s Men perform at The Rose 105 times from 19 Feb to 22 June 1592
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23 June 1592
Privy Council orders London playhouses to be closed fearing riots by apprentices
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Dec 1592 to Feb 1593
Strange’s Men resume occupancy at The Rose, playing 29 times from 29 Dec 1592 to 1 Feb 1593
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Feb to Dec 1593
Privy Council closes London playhouses because of plague, by order made on 28 Jan 1593
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Dec 1593 to Feb 1594
Sussex’s Men recorded performing at The Rose 30 times from 27 Dec 1593 to 6 Feb 1594
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3 Feb 1594
Privy Council again orders London playhouses closed because of plague
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6 Feb 1594
Titus Andronicus entered in the Stationer’s Register, and printed later that year with a title-page stating it had been “played by… the Earls of Derby, Pembroke, and Sussex their servants”
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1-8 April 1594
8 performances recorded by Sussex’s Men and the Queen’s Men playing together at The Rose
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14-17 May 1594
First records of the Admiral’s Men performing at The Rose
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3-13 June 1594
Both the Admiral’s Men and the Chamberlain’s Men perform at the playhouse in Newington Butts, perhaps due to flooding on Bankside
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15 June 1594
Admiral’s Men resume performances at The Rose, where they remain the resident company until 1600
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Spring 1595
Renovations made to The Rose during its closure during Lent, as The Swan Playhouse opens nearby
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22 July 1596
Privy Council again orders London playhouses closed because of plague
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27 Oct 1596
Admirals’ Men resume performances at The Rose, playing through to 28 July 1597
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22 July 1597
Privy Council orders all London playhouses closed for encouraging “lewd & ungodly practices”
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11 Oct 1597
Admirals’ Men resume performances at The Rose, playing through to 13 July 1598
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1599
Chamberlain’s Men relocate to the newly built Globe theatre opposite The Rose
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1600
Henslowe & Alleyn build the Fortune Playhouse north of the river, and the Admirals’ Men relocate to it
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28-29 Oct 1600
2 performances recorded at The Rose by Pembroke’s Men
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Aug 1602-Spring 1603
Henslowe’s business records show that Worcester’s Men are performing at The Rose
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19 March 1603
Privy Council orders closure of playhouses due to the Queen’s illness, her death on 24 March, & then funeral on 28 April, and they are closed again for the arrival of King James I into London on 7 May
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9 May 1603
Henlowe’s notes “Beginning to play again by the King’s licence & laid out since for my Lord of Worcesters men”
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May 1603 – April 1604
Theatres closed until after Easter 1604 due to plague, which continues sporadically throughout the rest of the year
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9 April 1604
The Rose not named as one of three playhouses permitted to reopen in a letter from the Privy Council to the Lord Mayor, meaning theatrical operations may have effectively ceased there the previous May
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29 Sept 1605
Henslowe’s lease of the Little Rose property expires
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25 April 1606
Sewer records refer to “the late playhouse in Maid Lane called the Rose” – if it had not already been demolished it was soon afterwards
Sources: Records of Early English Drama (REED) online