Viewing Event Record: Alleyn and Henslowe contract with Peter Street to build the Fortune

Abstract

An indenture made between Philip Henslowe and Edward Alleyn and Peter Street, carpenter, furnishes physical details about the Fortune theatre. Street is commissioned to build a new playhouse on a plot of ground near Golden Lane in the parish of St Giles Cripplegate, according to the criteria laid out in the contract. The description of the projected theatre discusses first the frame, then the stage and tiring house, the windows and lights, the tiling of the frame and staircases, and details of the ceiling and floors. In each particular, the design of the new playhouse is to follow the plan of the Globe, 'saving only that all the principal and main posts of the said frame and stage forward shall be square and wrought plasterwise with carved proportions called satyrs to be placed and set on top of every of the same posts.' Street is to provide the materials at his own 'proper costs and charges' and is to complete the building before 25 July of the same year. Henslowe and Alleyn are to pay Street £440 for the job: £220 when the frame is raised, and another £220 when the job is finished. A final paragraph stipulates that any sums given to Street toward the building expenses during the process will be deducted from the total payment.

Date Event Recorded

Date
From: 8 January 1600 (Source of claim: original)

Date Event Happened

Date
From: 8 January 1600 (Source of claim: original)

Venues

Name
Fortune (I)
Name
Globe (I)

People

Name Event Role(s) Document Role(s)
Smyth, Francis apprentice
Street, Peter carpenter citizen
Henslowe, Philip playhouse builder gentleman
Alleyn, Edward playhouse builder gentleman
Harris, William scrivener

Event Type

  • playhouse business
  • playhouse context