All’s Well That Ends Well: Wanamaker to Build Bard’s Theater

American actor-director Sam Wanamaker today won a 17-year struggle to rebuild William Shakespeare’s Globe theater at its original London site along the Thames River.

Following five days of arguments in the High Court, Wanamaker and the London borough of Southwark reached an out-of-court settlement under which the borough will provide the land for the theater, attorneys announced.

The one-acre site on the south bank of the Thames opposite St. Paul’s Cathedral is now a street-sweepers depot. Wanamaker plans a 1,000-seat replica of the Old Globe, which was built in 1599, burned down in 1613 and rebuilt, then demolished in 1644.