World Heritage Day is all about celebrating monuments and sites of international importance; arguably one of the most internationally significance sites is Shakespeare’s Birthplace. The house is visited by thousands of people every year, who are keen to see the room where the great playwright was born. You can actually walk in the footsteps of Shakespeare and his family as the parlour of the Birthplace retains the same Sixteenth Century flagstone floor. As this painting from our museum collections shows, the Birthplace became popular as a tourist attraction from the nineteenth century onwards - although the small crowd curiously pointing towards the Birthplace in the painting are nothing compared to the large groups we are lucky enough to host on Henley Street today!
Shakespeare and his works are for everyone for all time, and so the place where it all began, his birthplace, will remain a monument of pilgrimage for many generations to come.
2014 marks the 450th anniversary of the birth of Shakespeare, so why not come and celebrate with us in Stratford-upon-Avon and visit the Birthplace, the site of that very special birth in April 1564. Check out our website for more details about visiting the Birthplace and our other historic houses.