In which we visit five Shakespeare sites in one day : The Birthplace

The boys' bedroom. 

Henry Irving was one of the many visitors, famous and not-so-famous, who visited the Birthplace and scratched their names into the window of the room said to have been the one in which Shakespeare was born.

The parents' bedroom.

Potted Shakespeare in the garden -- this is the story of "Pyramus and Thisbe" à la "A Midsummer Night's Dream", the cast of two being supplemented by dragooned audience members!

This 16th-century house in Henley Street was owned by John Shakespeare, glover, wool dealer, and sometime alderman and dignitary of Stratford, and is presumed to be the house in which Shakespeare was born.  Originally a merchant's house -- the ground-floor window shutters could open outwards to make a sort of counter for displaying and selling wares -- it was also John's glover's shop and residence, then after his death part of it was leased out by his son William, who by then had his own house, for use as an inn.  It was originally part of a terrace, but in the late 18th and early 19th centuries when interest in the house as an historic site began to grow, the houses on either side were demolished in order to protect the Shakespeare house from fire.  To protect it from another kind of danger, that from the American showman P.T. Barnum, who wanted to buy the house and ship it lock-stock-and-barrel to America, a committee was formed to raise money for purchase and restoration -- this committee later became the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, who now own the house and the other main Shakespeare properties.

The SBT restored the house to its Elizabethan-era appearance, removing the brickwork that was a fashionable way in Georgian times of updating a timber-frame house, and adding a visitors' center next door. They have replanted the garden as well, and have recently completed a refurbishment of the interior to reflect the lives of the Shakespeare family, including a glove shop.