Newington Butts
Encyclopedia : N : NE : NEW : Newington Butts
Newington Butts is a short road in Southwark, London, England, leading south-west from the Elephant and Castle. The road forks into Kennington Park Road (the A3), to the left) leading to Kennington and Kennington Lane (the A3204, to the right) leading to Vauxhall Bridge.
History
The area was the site of an archery practice field, with mounds of earth used for the targets. This was known as an "archery butts" — hence the name. For a time, it was compulsary for all yeoman in England to learn archery.
A little-known theatre called Newington Butts located by the archery butts was used from around 1580 in William Shakespeare's time, located here partly to avoid the regulations of the city of London to the north. The theatre was in the form of an amphitheatre. In June 1594, a theatre troupe called the Chamberlain's Men gave their earliest recorded performances of Hamlet, The Taming of the Shrew and Titus Andronicus at this theatre. At the time, it was rather far from London for success, being a mile from the River Thames and outside London in the county of Surrey. The theatre fell into disuse but subsequently the area became a theatre district again.
Much later, the leading scientist Michael Faraday was born at Newington Butts in 1791.
See also
External links
- Grid reference
- [Shakespeare's Theatres: Newington Butts]
- [The Newington Butts Amphitheatre]
- [Newington Butts, Kennington] photograph, c. 1870
References
- [Archery Butts] including a [definition]
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