Shakespeare's London & Elizabethan Audiences

What was London like in Elizabethan times and who were the people attending the theatre?

More and more immigrants from the country and Europe were flocking to London, creating a serious overcrowding problem.  Within the space of 50 years, between 1550 and 1600 the population of London grew from around 50,000 residents to over 200,000. Having this amount of people in one place meant diseases were easily spread and hard to get rid of, when the plague struck in 1593 it killed over 10,000 people and caused all the theaters to close. The streets were also filled with sewage as there was no drainage system at this time, instead feces were thrown out of windows from a chamber pot. These conditions provided a great place for disease to grow and spread. The narrow, dark streets around London also created a place for thief's to thrive, with so many rich people passing through.  London expanded quickly with lots of houses being built on the outskirts, most of these houses were apartments and they were often built in very odd arrangements without much planning. It was common for people to go to alehouses, gambling dens, brothels or bear baiting and drink, resulting in a large population of drunk people out on the streets. It was normal for the middle and upper class to drink wine instead of water, about 130,00 to 150,00 of the people in London would have been drunk at any one time.

The first ever playhouses were built in London because it was the centre of wealth and spanned such a wide area, making it the biggest and largest city within England. There was a huge population of wealthy traders and manufactures as well as all the workers they employed, making London the  capital of work, business and trade. The playhouses were established because these were the people who had the money to really go to the theatre. It was a prosperous industry, so much so that by 1600 around 20,000 people out of the 200,000 people that lived in London went to the theatre each week. London was also a good place to open up a theatre because a lot of nobility and royalty resided there, often rich noblemen would become a patron of a theatre and then provide any money or legal support they needed.  As well as the noblemen, royalty often supported the theatre as well, King James was know to have Shakespeare's company perform around 15 times per year in his courtyard.

There was no one specific class or audience member that came to the theatre, it was simply everyone and anyone who would come. On average there was more men than women who attended the theatre, but the divide wasn't huge. Even more lower class people such as servants and porters would most likely spend all their free time in theaters, as well as wealthy, upper class people. Theatre encompassed the whole spectrum of people, so much so that in 1607 the Venetian ambassador brought every single most expensive seat in a production of Shakespeare's Pericles, even royalty enjoyed watching theatre. However, there was a divide in the classes in terms of what each class would go and see if the theatre, if they went anywhere at all. Royalty would often not go out to theatre but instead theatre companies would be summoned to perform in the courts of their residents, normally the courts of Elizabeth I or James I.

Standing spaces in open air theatres were the cheapest to go to, costing only about 1 penny to stand in the yard by the stage. These people were sold food and drink like oranges, nuts, ale, gingerbread and apples were sold to them throughout the performance. However, there weren't any toilets in the theatres and the floor was just made up of sand and ash, so the conditions in the yard often got quite grim and unsanitary. There were a huge number of complaints about the pit smelling of garlic and beer, therefore the more expensive seats became a lot more attractive. Anyone who had any sort of reputation would never let themself be seen standing in the yard. These people would, at the leat, pay 2 pennies to be able to sit on a bench in the lower galleries around the yard, and then for another penny you could get a comfortable cushion to sit on the benches. In open air theatres there was a place called the 'Lord's Room', this was the most expensive place to be as it was indoors, the price started at around 6 pence. People of all classes were able to go to the theatre because it was relatively cheap, with 1 penny being about the price of a loaf of bread, something most lower class families could afford.