Eye on London - Shakespeare in London

London from the inside Monday 24th - Sunday 30th April 2017

Two bank holidays down but there’s two more just around the corner (yippee!) and - not wanting to jinx it - but the weather is pretty good too. It’s about time to plan how you’re going to spend all these three day weekends, and this blog is here every week to help.

SHAKESPEARE IN LONDON

April is undoubtedly Shakespeare Month with his birthday and date of death both believed to be on 23rd April. 401 years after his death, Shakespeare’s Globe (the third incarnation of the theatre) is celebrating it’s 20th year. Longer than the first one, that only lasted 14 years before it burnt down after a cannon incident, three years before Shakespeare’s death. Groundling tickets have been £5 since opening in 1997, so there’s no excuse.

Shakespeare plays in London now and coming soon...

• Twelfth Night, National Theatre, until 13th May 2017
• Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare’s Globe, until 9th July 2017
• Hamlet, Harold Pinter Theatre, 9th June - 2nd September
• The Tempest, Barbican Centre, 30th June - 18th August 2017
• Much Ado About Nothing, Shakespeare’s Globe, 14th July - 15th October 2017  
• King Lear, Shakespeare’s Globe, 10th August - 14th October 2017

If you don’t want to do a whole play, there’s daily half hourly tours and an exhibition of The Globe.

EYE ON… BARKING AND DAGENHAM

There are 32 capsules on The Coca-Cola London Eye, representing the 32 London boroughs, so each week we explore a different London borough.

The end of the district line is probably most famous for ‘Made in Dagenham’ - which was less about fashion and really about the fight for women’s rights when the sewing machinists strike at the Ford Dagenham plant in 1968 led to the Equal Pay Act 1970. If you find yourself Barking way you should pop into these spots. While not the best tourist attractions London has to offer, they have great relevance historically and to the borough…

• Barking Abbey (the ruins date from 666)
• Eastbury Manor house, National Trust (completed in the 1570s)  
• The Becontree Estate (the largest public housing development ever attempted)

ON THIS DAY…

27th April 1992

Betty Boothroyd is elected as the first female Speaker for the House of Commons for the first time in its 700-year history.

29th April 1958

My Fair Lady opens for its first night in London to an extremely enthusiastic reception at the Drury Lane theatre starring Rex Harrison and Julie Andrews.

29th April 1993

The Queen opens Buckingham Palace to the public for the first time in a bid to raise funds to repair Windsor Castle after it’s 1992 fire.

 

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