Bear Gardens

Bear Gardens is a short cobbled alley leading south from Bankside to the river walk, yards from Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. The street is unremarkable today—a quiet passage between modern buildings. Yet it marks the location of one of Tudor London’s most famous public spectacles: a large wooden arena where bears and bulls fought dogs whilst crowds cheered from tiered galleries.

By 1799, the alley was showing up on maps as Bear Garden, not because of fragrant plantings but a brutal form of entertainment that took place on the southern corner of the alley. The name is a memorial to a place that no longer exists above ground—though timber remains of the arena are now a scheduled monument beneath the modern buildings.

Documentary sources from the middle 16th century refer to the bear-baiting rink as being in Paris Garden, the liberty at the western end of the Bankside. The names of the facility and its location were merged in popular usage: John Stow, writing in 1583, calls it "The Beare-garden, commonly called the Paris garden." The date of the Beargarden’s construction is unknown; it was in existence by the 1560s, when it is shown on the "woodcut" map of the city.

The Beargarden was a polygonal wooden, donut-shaped structure, much like the theatres such as the Rose and Globe, where the activities took part on the floor in the middle whilst the audience sat around the donut’s ring. When the arena closed, the alley nearby inherited its name. That name has remained, long after the screams of animals and crowds fell silent.

The Beargarden was a facility for bear-baiting, bull-baiting, and other "animal sports" in the London area during the 16th and 17th centuries, from the Elizabethan era to the English Restoration period. Elizabeth I was fond of the entertainment; it featured regularly in her tours. When an attempt was made to ban bear-baiting on Sundays, she overruled Parliament. The sport drew a cross-section of society—from nobility to common folk—and was sufficiently noteworthy that the Tudors and Stuarts introduced a new ambassador to the Bear Garden as soon as the first audience was over.

Samuel Pepys visited the Hope/Beargarden on August 14, 1666, and described it as "a rude and nasty pleasure." The last recorded event at the Beargarden was the baiting of "a fine but vicious horse" in 1682. After that, the venue fell into disuse. The site eventually became glasshouses, warehouses, and industrial premises—until modern redevelopment. Yet the street name survived as a ghost of its violent past.

Timber remains of the arena are now a scheduled monument beneath the modern buildings. Excavations on the site have uncovered archaeological evidence of the Bear Garden’s structure and use, including animal bones and wooden fragments that confirm its exact location. The site was home to Shakespeare’s Globe Education Centre—studios, rehearsal space, and other facilities, making the area a living continuation of the entertainment tradition that began here in the 16th century.

The street remains a pilgrim site for theatre history and Shakespeare enthusiasts. Unlike the rowdy amphitheatre of old, today’s Bear Gardens is peaceful—a narrow pass between heritage buildings and modern structures. The memory of its notorious use persists only in the name, and in the archaeological record beneath the cobbles.

Bear Gardens is a short street close to the original site of the bear garden, running south from Bankside to Park Street, and its name is a reminder of the site of the Tudor Bear Garden. The alley is lined with a mix of historic and modern buildings—converted warehouses, Victorian structures, and contemporary developments—all standing on the same ground that once held a roaring crowd.

The street today feels more akin to a passage or laneway than a thoroughfare. Its narrowness and quiet character contrast sharply with its role as one of London’s primary entertainment destinations four centuries ago. Walking down it now, one might pass workers or tourists unaware of the violent spectacle that once drew royalty and ambassadors to this exact corner of Bankside.