This summer, theatre history is uniquely brought to life with the realization of what had seemed the impossible dream of two men, an American actor and a South African architect. William Shakespeare's own theatre, The Globe, for which he wrote his greatest plays, will open again only a stone's throw from where it stood 350 years ago. In its day it had been one of a small group of playhouses on the Bankside district of Southwark. It has now been recreated as the International Shakespeare Globe Centre and is the fruit of the 25-year partnership of actor Sam Wanamaker and architect Theo Crosby. Their achievement is marked by this issue of Royal Mail stamps suggesting the Bankside theatres of Shakespeare's time, designed by C Walter Hodges. To the west of Bankside, opposite Blackfriars, was The Swan, built in 1595. A little downstream stood the first Bankside playhouse, The Rose, built in 1587 and enlarged to the shape on the stamp in 1592. The plays of Christopher Marlowe, including Doctor Faustus, were nearly all performed here. In 1599 The Globe was erected nearer to London Bridge where the greatest days of Shakespeare's career were played out. This theatre did not outlive Shakespeare; in 1613 a cannon used as a 'special effect' set fire to the thatch and it burned down. Possibly to capitalise on the destruction, The Hope was erected the same year, to the east, by a rival company and it doubled as a bull and bear baiting ring. Yet in 1614 a new Globe, with tiles rather than thatch, was opened on the site of the first and stood until 1644.

SAM WANAMAKER 1919-1993

THEO CROSBY 1925-1994