1602

A new London home

Smithfield, in 1900, gives some idea
of what the corner of Silver Street
would have looked likeAt the peak of his professional career, Shakespeare moves north of the Thames to lodge in a house on the corner of Silver Street and Monkwell (known locally as Muggle Street).

He lodges with the Mountjoys, makers of "tires," the kind of fanciful Elizabethan headdress popular with Elton John a few years ago. The Mountjoys are a French Huguenot family exempt from adhering to Protestant doctrine – and a family with a colorful private life. Mrs. Mountjoy was a patient of Simon Foreman.

It is while living at this address that Shakespeare writes some of his best known work.