The Cockpit was a

theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perfor ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, operating from 1616 to around 1665. It was the first theatre to be located near

Drury Lane Drury Lane is a street on the eastern boundary of the Covent Garden area of London, running between Aldwych and High Holborn. The northern part is in the borough of Camden and the southern part in the City of Westminster. Notable landmarks T ...

. After damage in 1617, it was named The Phoenix.

History

London map showing Shakespearean theatres

The original building was an actual cockpit; that is, a staging area for

cockfight A cockfight is a blood sport, held in a ring called a cockpit. The history of raising fowl for fighting goes back 6,000 years. The first documented use of the ''word'' gamecock, denoting use of the cock as to a "game", a sport, pastime or ent ...

s. Most likely a round building with a peaked roof, about in diameter, it was erected under Henry VIII, c. 1530-32, as part of a gaming complex. Records indicate a major restoration in 1581-82 and renovations in 1589-90, 1602-3, and 1608-9 (the latter under the supervision of John Best, "cockmaster" to

Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales (19 February 1594 – 6 November 1612), was the eldest son and heir apparent of James VI and I, King of England and Scotland; and his wife Anne of Denmark. His name derives from his grandfathers: Henry Stua ...

, King James I's eldest son and heir). In August 1616,

Christopher Beeston Christopher Beeston (c. 1579 – c. 15 October 1638) was a successful actor and a powerful theatrical impresario in early 17th century London. He was associated with a number of playwrights, particularly Thomas Heywood. Early life Little is kno ...

acquired the lease to the building and converted it to an indoor playhouse. In March 1617, rioting apprentices attempted to destroy the playhouse, probably out of anger that their favorite plays had been removed from the Red Bull outdoor amphitheater, which charged only one penny for admission, to this more expensive (six-penny) venue. The actors shot at the rioters, killing three. The apprentices entered the building and cut up the costumes. Beeston's rapid restoration of the playhouse after the riot may explain why it was sometimes called the Phoenix. Like earlier theatres, such as

The Theatre The Theatre was an Elizabethan playhouse in Shoreditch (in Curtain Road, part of the modern London Borough of Hackney), just outside the City of London. It was the first permanent theatre ever built in England. It was built in 1576 after t ...

Shoreditch Shoreditch is a district in the East End of London in England, and forms the southern part of the London Borough of Hackney. Neighbouring parts of Tower Hamlets are also perceived as part of the area. In the 16th century, Shoreditch was an imp ...

and The Globe in

Southwark Southwark ( ) is a district of Central London situated on the south bank of the River Thames, forming the north-western part of the wider modern London Borough of Southwark. The district, which is the oldest part of South London, developed ...

, the location was just outside the jurisdiction of the

City of London The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London f ...

. Beeston expanded the original small building; the construction work prompted complaints by neighbors, which left traces in the legal records of the time. The resulting theatre was, by one estimate, by , "noticeably smaller than the Blackfriars."Gurr, ''Shakespearean Stage,'' pp. 24-25. The architect commissioned for the renovation is not known for a certainty, but circumstantial evidence points to

Inigo Jones Inigo Jones (; 15 July 1573 – 21 June 1652) was the first significant architect in England and Wales in the early modern period, and the first to employ Vitruvian rules of proportion and symmetry in his buildings. As the most notable archit ...

. Two sheets drawn by Jones and showing the interior and exterior design of ''some'' theatre have survived;

John Orrell John Orrell (December 31, 1934 – September 16, 2003) was a British author, theatre historian, and English professor at the University of Alberta. The ''New York Times'' described him as the "historian whose intellectual detective work laid t ...

makes the case that the theatre is the Cockpit, while allowing that he cannot produce conclusive evidence to that end. (In 1629, Inigo Jones would design another "Cockpit" theatre, a private one within

Whitehall Whitehall is a road and area in the City of Westminster, Central London. The road forms the first part of the A3212 road from Trafalgar Square to Chelsea. It is the main thoroughfare running south from Trafalgar Square towards Parliament Sq ...

called the

Cockpit-in-Court The Cockpit-in-Court (also known as the Royal Cockpit) was an early theatre in London, located at the Palace of Whitehall, next to St. James's Park, now the site of 70 Whitehall, in Westminster. The structure was originally built by Henry VIII ...

or Royal Cockpit.) Beeston intended the Cockpit to serve as an indoor complement to the

Red Bull Red Bull is a brand of energy drinks of Austrian company Red Bull GmbH. With 38% market share, it is the most popular energy drink brand as of 2019. Since its launch in 1987, more than 100 billion cans of Red Bull have been sold worldwide, inclu ...

, the outdoor theatre then home to his acting troupe,

Queen Anne's Men Queen Anne's Men was a playing company, or troupe of actors, in Jacobean era London. In their own era they were known colloquially as the Queen's Men — as were Queen Elizabeth's Men and Queen Henrietta's Men, in theirs. Formation The group w ...

. A winter venue was needed to compete with the Blackfriars Theatre in the possession of their rival troupe, the King's Men. After a rocky start, the company proved successful in their new locale. Wickham attributes the success more to the theatre's location and comfort and to the flair of its manager, Beeston, than to the quality of its performers. Beeston would oversee several different troupes in the Cockpit before his death in 1639.

were there from 1617 to 1619; when that company dissolved upon the death of

Anne of Denmark Anne of Denmark (; 12 December 1574 – 2 March 1619) was the wife of King James VI and I; as such, she was Queen of Scotland from their marriage on 20 August 1589 and Queen of England and Ireland from the union of the Scottish and Eng ...

in 1619, their place was taken by

Prince Charles's Men Prince Charles's Men (known as the Duke of York's Men from 1608 to 1612) was a playing company or troupe of actors in Jacobean and Caroline England. The Jacobean era troupe The company was formed in 1608 as the Duke of York's Men, under the titul ...

from 1619 to 1622.

Lady Elizabeth's Men The Lady Elizabeth's Men, or Princess Elizabeth's Men, was a company of actors in Jacobean London, formed under the patronage of King James I's daughter Princess Elizabeth. From 1618 on, the company was called The Queen of Bohemia's Men, afte ...

were there from 1622 to 1624, and perhaps for sporadic periods as early as 1619 (the two companies, Prince Charles's and Lady Elizabeth's, had combined for a time ca. 1615). Queen Henrietta's Men had a long run at the Cockpit, from 1625 to 1636. The last troupe to occupy the Cockpit in Beeston's lifetime was one of his own creation, the King and Queen's Young Company, colloquially known as

Beeston's Boys Beeston's Boys was the popular and colloquial name of The King and Queen's Young Company, a troupe of boy actors of the Caroline period, active mainly in the years 1637–1642. Origin The troupe was formed in early 1637, under a royal warrant, ...

— the last assembly of boy actors in the period. They would continue in the theatre under the management of his son

William William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...

. William Beeston was forced out of the theatre when his choice of plays met with the disapproval of the Court. He was replaced by

William Davenant Sir William Davenant (baptised 3 March 1606 – 7 April 1668), also spelled D'Avenant, was an English poet and playwright. Along with Thomas Killigrew, Davenant was one of the rare figures in English Renaissance theatre whose career spanned b ...

in 1639. All theatres were closed by Parliament in 1642, under the

Commonwealth A commonwealth is a traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good. Historically, it has been synonymous with "republic". The noun "commonwealth", meaning "public welfare, general good or advantage", dates from the ...

. The Cockpit was used as a schoolroom, but plays continued to be shown illegally. It was raided by

Puritan The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to purify the Church of England of Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should become more Protestant. ...

soldiers during a performance in 1649 and the players were imprisoned. In 1651 William Beeston paid £200 for repairs to the theatre, in the hope that he would be able to start performances there again — though the hope proved illusory. In the last years of the

English Interregnum The Interregnum was the period between the execution of Charles I on 30 January 1649 and the arrival of his son Charles II in London on 29 May 1660 which marked the start of the Restoration. During the Interregnum, England was under various for ...

, under the common conceit that music was not acting, Davenant was permitted to present two licensed operas in the Cockpit: ''The Cruelty of the Spaniards in Peru'' in 1658 and ''Sir Francis Drake'' in 1659. The theatres were permitted to reopen after the

English Restoration The Restoration of the Stuart monarchy in the kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland took place in 1660 when King Charles II returned from exile in continental Europe. The preceding period of the Protectorate and the civil wars came to ...

in 1660, when Charles II granted

Letters Patent Letters patent ( la, litterae patentes) ( always in the plural) are a type of legal instrument in the form of a published written order issued by a monarch, president or other head of state, generally granting an office, right, monopoly, tit ...

to two companies to perform "legitimate drama" in London: the

Duke's Company The Duke's Company was a theatre company chartered by King Charles II at the start of the Restoration era, 1660. Sir William Davenant was manager of the company under the patronage of Prince James, Duke of York. During hats period, theatres b ...

, led by Davenant, and the

King's Company The King's Company was one of two enterprises granted the rights to mount theatrical productions in London, after the London theatre closure had been lifted at the start of the English Restoration. It existed from 1660 to 1682, when it merged wi ...

, led by

Thomas Killigrew Thomas Killigrew (7 February 1612 – 19 March 1683) was an English dramatist and theatre manager. He was a witty, dissolute figure at the court of King Charles II of England. Life Killigrew was one of twelve children of Sir Robert Killigrew ...

. Both companies briefly made use of the earlier generation of theatres including the Cockpit and the

Salisbury Court Theatre The Salisbury Court Theatre was a theatre in 17th-century London. It was in the neighbourhood of Salisbury Court, which was formerly the London residence of the Bishops of Salisbury. Salisbury Court was acquired by Richard Sackville in 1564 ...

, but quickly moved to newer and more fashionable venues — Davenant in 1661 to a theatre in

Lincoln's Inn Fields Lincoln's Inn Fields is the largest public square in London. It was laid out in the 1630s under the initiative of the speculative builder and contractor William Newton, "the first in a long series of entrepreneurs who took a hand in develo ...

that was once

Lisle's Tennis Court Lisle's Tennis Court was a building off Portugal Street in Lincoln's Inn Fields in London. Originally built as a real tennis court, it was used as a playhouse during two periods, 1661–1674 and 1695–1705. During the early period, ...

, and Killigrew in 1660 to Gibbon's Tennis Court in Vere Street. The Cockpit was also used in this era by the companies of John Rhodes and

George Jolly George Jolly, or Joliffe (in Germany, Joris Joliphus or Jollifous) (fl. 1640 – 1673) was an actor, an early actor-manager and a theatre impresario of the middle seventeenth century. He was "an experienced, courageous, and obstinate actor-manage ...

Samuel Pepys Samuel Pepys (; 23 February 1633 – 26 May 1703) was an English diarist and naval administrator. He served as administrator of the Royal Navy and Member of Parliament and is most famous for the diary he kept for a decade. Pepys had no mariti ...

wrote in his diary of several visits to the theatre between 1660 and 1663. In 1663, Killigrew's King's Company opened the

Theatre Royal, Drury Lane The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, commonly known as Drury Lane, is a West End theatre and Grade I listed building in Covent Garden, London, England. The building faces Catherine Street (earlier named Bridges or Brydges Street) and backs onto Dr ...

nearby. The Cockpit was unable to compete with this relatively grand new theatre and was further hamstrung since it was shut out of the monopoly on "legitimate drama" granted to the two patent companies. There is no record of any play being mounted at the Cockpit after 1665; the eventual fate of the structure is unknown. The Phoenix was located in the middle of the area bounded today by Drury Lane, Great Queen Street, Great Wild Street, and Kemble Street. The entrance to the theatre was in Cockpit Alley, which ran from Drury Lane to Great Wild Street; the present-day Martlett Court is off Drury Lane roughly opposite where the entrance to Cockpit Alley was.Berry, 623.

Notes

References

* Herbert Berry, "The Phoenix". In Glynne Wickham, Herbert Berry, and William Ingram, editors, ''English Professional Theatre, 1530–1660''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000. 623–637. * Gurr, Andrew, with

(1989). ''Rebuilding Shakespeare's Globe.'' New York, Routledge. * Gurr, Andrew (1992). ''The Shakespearean Stage.'' Third edition, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. * Harbage, Alfred, et al. (1989). ''The Annals of English Drama 975–1700.'' London: Routledge. * Orrell, John (1977). "Inigo Jones at The Cockpit", Muir, Kenneth ed. ''Shakespeare Survey'' 30. Page references are to the 2002 paperback edition. *Thomson, Peter (1995). "Cockpit Theatre", Banham, Martin ''The Cambridge Guide to Theatre''. Cambridge University Press, p. 225. * Wickham, Glynne (1972). ''Early English Stages 1300 to 1660: Volume Two 1576 to 1660, Part II''. London: Routledge.

External links

'Drury Lane Theatre'
Old and New London: Volume 3 (1878), pp. 218–27.
The Diary of Samuel Pepys
*
Shakespearean Playhouses
', by Joseph Quincy Adams Jr. from

Project Gutenberg Project Gutenberg (PG) is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, as well as to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks." It was founded in 1971 by American writer Michael S. Hart and is the oldest digital libr ...

{{Coord, 51, 30, 47, N, 0, 07, 14, W, region:GB-WSM_type:landmark_source:kolossus-eswiki, display=title Former theatres in London 1616 establishments in England 1665 disestablishments Former buildings and structures in the City of Westminster 17th century in London Theatres completed in 1616

History

Notes

References

See also

External links