CS Ng A 
BLACKFRIARS THEATRE BUILDING 37 
The Blackfriars building was a stone’ structure erected in two 
sections. The north section adjoining the Pipe Office,—a gov- 
ernment repository where great drainpipe-like rolls of state parch- 
ments were kept,—was three stories high, with garret above these 
and cellars or vaults beneath.? The tiled roof was steep,® with 
gable-end facing north on Pipe-Office Yard* (now Playhouse 
Yard), and dormer windows in the third story.®> In the west half 
of this section there were two rooms on the second floor® and two 
on the first immediately below.?’ These four rooms were balanced 
on the east by an entry hall and a great winding stone stair-way.® 
The main entrance of the building was out of Pipe-Office Yard 
and led by the great winding stair and hall to all the rooms of 
this north section, as also on the second floor by a passage through 
the dividing stone wall to that part of the south section described 
as the “seaven greate upper romes . . . sometyme beinge one. 
greate and entire rome.’”® 
The south section is of chief literary-historical interest because 
of its having been made into the “Great Hall” of Blackfriars the- 
atre. At the date of purchase this section was two stories high?® 
with “cellar” or basement rooms besides.*1_ The flat roof was cov- 
- well-Phillips, op. 
ered with lead,!? up to which 
_romes” ran a stone stair-way.7* 
*Cf. Deed to Burbage in Halli- 
cit., I, 299-300, 
passim. 
*Ibid. The parts describing the 
north section are 299, 21-35; 300, 
17-36, 38-53. 
®See Deed, u. s., description of 
the two rooms in third story occu- 
' pied by Edward Merry (300, 21-31) 
a of the garret above (300, 31- 
36). 
‘Idem, 299, 23, 32; 300, 41-46. 
*The location of the rooms occu- 
pied by Edward Merry (id., 300, 
21-28) would seem to require this 
sort of structure so common to the 
times. 
*These were occupied by Charles 
Bradshaw. They had an entrance 
from the main stairway, and also 
an outside stairway.—_lIdem, 300, 17- 
21, 50-53. 
™These were occupied by Peter 
from the “seaven greate upper 
The lower floor of this section, 
Johnson. They had a separate en- 
trance.—/dem, 300, 38-43. 
®Tdem, 299, 21-23, 31-32; 300, 20- 
21, 24-25. 
*Tdem, 299, 21-23; 300, 20-21, 26- 
28, 28-31, 34-36. 
Tdem, 299, 14-21; 299, 35—300, 
a7, 3300; 536538: 
“Idem, 300, 11-17. 
2Tdem, 299, 16-19. Steep roofs 
were covered with tile, and flat roofs 
with lead. During a recent delight- 
ful itinerary of Hampton Court Pal- 
ace by members and friends of the 
London Shakespeare League con- 
ducted by Mr. Ernest Law, I was 
impressed with the appearance of a 
similar flat lead-covered roof of a 
contemporary part of the structure 
that we crossed in passing from 
“the Great Hall” to another portion 
of that Shakespeare-haunted palace. 
BT dem, 299, 17-18. 
I51 
