Stratford-upon-Avon

Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, birth-place of Shakespeare, and the scene of an annual festival of his plays. The first festival, organized by Garrick in 1769, was chiefly remarkable for the fact that none of Shakespeare's plays was performed. After that there were only sporadic performances by strolling companies. In 1864, on the initiative of the then mayor, Edward Fordham Flower, member of a local family of brewers, actors from London were invited to appear in a Grand Pavilion, specially built for the occasion, to celebrate the 300th anniversary of Shakespeare's birth, the plays performed being Twelfth Night, The Comedy of Errors, Romeo and Juliet, As You Like it, Othello, and Much Ado about Nothing. Some years later Flower's son, Charles Edward Flower, denoted the site and provided most of the money for the building of the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, which later became the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. The Other Place opened in 1974, and The Swan in 1986.

Apart from the Royal Shakespeare Theatre's library and picture gallery, Stratford-upon-Avon has a library and conference centre attached to Shakespeare's birthplace. There is also an Institute of Shakespeare Studies sponsored by the University of Birmingham, which grew out of the lectures arranged by Professor Allardyce Nicoll for the British Council at Mason Croft, the former home of the novelist Marie Corelli; it provides a centre for research work all the year round and a meeting-place for Shakespeare scholars during the summer conference. Hall Croft, the home of Shakespeare's daughter Susanna after her marriage in 1607, also provides a useful centre of activity during the Shakespeare season.