Shakespeare North – progress on site

Knowsley Council, in conjunction with Shakespeare North Playhouse Trust, has committed to delivering Shakespeare North Playhouse in Prescot, Knowsley. This project is firmly rooted in a credible historic foundation. Shakespeare North aims to make Knowsley once again a place where actors, writers, artists, students and young people will be able to study and practise the plays of Shakespeare (a place to attract scholars, students and visitors from all over the world).

To achieve this vision Shakespeare North has bold ambitions. It will build again The Playhouse in Prescot where, over 400 years ago, as the only purpose-built indoor playhouse outside London, Elizabethan drama was enjoyed by the people of the region. The theatre and education campus will commemorate the Shakespearean connections to Prescot, the Liverpool City Region and the North West. Academic research indicates that William Shakespeare spent the early part of his career (the lost years in the late 1570s and 1580s before he went to London) in Lancashire in the service of wealthy and influential families, including the Stanley’s of Knowsley Hall.

The central heart of the facility being a theatre which will be the world’s first replica of a Jacobean court theatre based upon a recreation of a historical Inigo Jones ‘cock pit’ design. The surrounding building will form a ‘wrap around’ to the Jacobean central heart. This contemporary space will provide accommodation for front and back of house, a visitor exhibition, education and community facilities. Both parts will be linked by a three story atrium space. The landscape area will provide further performance opportunity space to compliment the theatre.

Knowsley Council, in conjunction with Shakespeare North Playhouse Trust, has committed to delivering Shakespeare North Playhouse in Prescot, Knowsley. This project is firmly rooted in a credible historic foundation. Shakespeare North aims to make Knowsley once again a place where actors, writers, artists, students and young people will be able to study and practise the plays of Shakespeare (a place to attract scholars, students and visitors from all over the world).

Works on site are currently at week 17 of a 106 week programme and the project is due for completion in February 2022. Ongoing construction works include the concrete frame incorporating the box which will house the theatre