The Courtyard

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Bowling Green Walk, 40 Pitfield Street, N1 6EU T: +44 (0)20 7251 6018

The Courtyard in Islington

The Courtyard, Islington

To celebrate the opening of the new Courtyard Theatre, a permanent display has been created about the history of the building and the surrounding area. The new theatre has been developed within a Grade II listed building, the former public library in Pitfield Street, Hoxton. Interestingly, this is only a few hundred metres from the site of the first purpose-built playhouses in England, the Theatre (1576) and the Curtain (1577), the latter still commemorated in the name of Curtain Road. These, like the later playhouses on the south bank of the Thames, were built just outside the City of London to avoid coming under the jurisdiction of the city fathers.