Office Tower Planned for Shakespeare Site : Save Rose Playhouse, Actors Implore Britain

Actors and politicians appealed to the government and property developers today to preserve the historic remains of the Rose Playhouse, where some of William Shakespeare’s plays premiered.

Archeologists from the Museum of London digging near the banks of the Thames River in Southwark, central London, unearthed important remains of the Rose, built in 1587, and want the government to prevent Imry Merchant Properties from beginning to build an office tower over the site Monday.

Famous entertainers from the stage and screen turned out today to support the effort to preserve the site.

“You’re killing yourself. You’re destroying your own heritage,” said actor Dustin Hoffman.

Dame Judi Dench, one of Britain’s leading Shakespearean actresses, said, “There’s no other country in the world (where) if they found a theater of possibly the greatest playwright in the world that this could happen.”

In a letter to the Times of London, actors and playwrights, including Laurence Olivier, Tom Stoppard and Derek Jacobi, said, “Surely the secretary of state should intervene, even at this last-minute stage, to prevent building from proceeding and to save the entire Rose theater site for the nation.”

Environment Secretary Nicholas Ridley told reporters today that he had “not decided what to do yet.”