Shakespeare’s Birthplace: Touring 16th Century Stratford-Upon-Avon

William Shakespeare's hometown still holds the streets, buildings, and even the river crossings he would have known as a boy. On this walking tour, you'll see how Stratford-upon-Avon shaped the world's most famous playwright. You'll also hear how his plays reveal clues about his own hidden life.

The tour starts at The Jester statue on Henley Street, near Shakespeare's Birthplace, the Tudor cottage where he was born above his father's glove-making workshop. You'll pass the Royal Shakespeare Theatre and the Swan Theatre, then walk beside the River Avon toward Holy Trinity Church, hearing how Shakespeare's tragedies and histories tracked the personal upheavals of his life.

Along the way, you'll find out how P. T. Barnum once tried to buy Shakespeare's Birthplace and ship it to New York, and how Charles Dickens helped stop him. You'll learn why Shakespeare was buried inside a church rather than a graveyard, and what his will reveals about his marriage to Anne Hathaway. The tour ends near the MAD Museum on Henley Street, close to where it began.

On this 75-minute tour, you'll have a chance to:

• See Clopton Bridge, built in 1486 by a local man whose success in London may have inspired young Shakespeare
• Visit Hall's Croft, the Tudor home of Shakespeare's daughter Susanna and her physician husband
• Stand at New Place, where Shakespeare wrote The Tempest and lived until his death in 1616
• Pass King Edward VI School, where Shakespeare likely gained the classical education reflected in his plays
• Spot the Guild Chapel, whose weekly sermons shaped the biblical language running through his work
• Watch Stratford's hand-wound Chain Ferry cross the Avon, operating since 1937

By the time you reach the tour's end, you'll understand exactly how this market town's streets, faith, and family dramas found their way into Shakespeare's plays.