conveyance recites amongst other property a plot of ground between Globe Alley and a common sewer, from which had been cleared in 1767 some 'ruinous and decayed' tenements formerly occupied in 1715 by John Knowles and others.[1] This is probably the clearance referred to by Mrs. Piozzi. Under Acts of 1786 and 1812 Globe Alley was closed, and it is now covered over within the brewery precinct. Horwood's map of 1799 shows the eastern end already obliterated. The western end is called Globe Walk, and to the north of it is Globe Court, perhaps representing the space cleared in 1767.
On the assumption that the theatre stood in Globe Alley, there has been divergence of opinion as to the precise part of the Alley in which it stood. Mr. Rendle fixed on a spot on the north side, about 80 or 100 feet from the Deadman's Place end.[2] To this he was guided, partly by a further local tradition, according to which the site was occupied successively by a meeting-house and a windmill, and partly by an argument derived from the entries in the St. Saviour's token-*book for 1621.[3] Here, under the heading 'Sir John Bodley's Rentes' are recorded in succession about ten names. Thena theatre called the "Globe". . . . Near to this place stood the meeting-house. . . . Its dissolution took place about the year 1752. . . . It is at present used for warehousing goods. A mill was also erected over it for the purpose of grinding bones'; R. Wilkinson, Londina Illustrata (1819), i. 135, 'Upon the disuse of the theatre, its site . . . was formed into a meeting-house. . . . Afterwards a mill was erected here to grind bones; and it is at present appropriated for the purpose of grinding stones and similar materials'. The plan, however, which accompanies Wilkinson's text, assigns the theatre to an improbable site some way west of the meeting-house. The Globe Alley meeting-house was built in 1672; it appears in a list of 1683, and is marked on Rocque's map of 1746 on Rendle's favourite site. Wilson only says the meeting-house was near the Globe; Wilkinson identifies the sites. Chalmers mentions the windmill, but not the meeting-house. I may add that a line drawn south from the west of Queenhithe would pass west of any possible site for the Globe. Malone's 'nearly opposite to Friday Street, Cheapside' (Variorum, iii. 63) can also only be approximate.]
- ↑ Martin, 165, 177. It is probably a mere coincidence that John Knowles held a garden next the Globe site in 1599.
- ↑ Rendle, Bankside, xix; Antiquarian, viii. 216.
- ↑ Chalmers, Apology (1797), 114, 'I maintain, that the Globe was situated on the Bank, within eighty paces of the river, which has since receded from its former limits; that the Globe stood on the site of John Whatley's windmill, which is at present used for grinding colours; as I was assured by an intelligent manager of Barclay's brewhouse, which covers, in its ample range, part of Globe Alley; and that Whatley's wind mill stands due south from the western side of Queenhythe by the compass, which I set for the express purpose of ascertaining the relative bearings of the windmill to the opposite objects on the Thames'; W. Wilson, History and Antiquities of Dissenting Churches (1814), iv. 148, 175, 'In former days there stood here [in Globe Alley
