All’s not well as Shakespeare’s birthplace needs exclusion zone to cope with crowds
Shaming of the few as ‘over enthusiastic visitors’ to Bard’s Stratford house swipe parts of the building
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE’S words have flourished down the ages, finding a fresh audience with each new generation – but the house where he was born is faring far less well from the continued attention of his admirers.
Such is the enthusiasm of the Bard’s fans that a wider “exclusion zone” is having to be built around the front of his birthplace in order to protect it from overzealous visitors.
The fence which currently surrounds the front of the timbered cottage is to be moved a further metre (3ft 2in) from the building, which is at least 460 years old, to stop people reaching over and touching it.
The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust fears that repeated touching of the house will cause damage to its ancient wooden beams and plasterwork.
Visitors to Stratford-upon-avon have also attempted to remove parts of the house as souvenirs, with at least one tile chipped off its porch and stolen two years ago.
At the same time the railings which were originally erected in 1862 to offer some measure of protection to the house have been bent out of shape by the pressure of visitors leaning on them while posing for photographs.
More than 600,000 people visit Shakespeare’s birthplace each year and with thousands more expected to descend on Stratford for the celebrations of the playwright’s birthday in April the trust says it has no option but to take stronger measures to protect it.
In a planning application to Stratford-on-avon district council the trust states: “The reason to move the railings is to protect the frontage of the building from visitors who currently attempt to lean over the railings and touch and in some cases even remove parts of the building as souvenirs.
“An example of this has been the removal of roof tiles from the porch and bay area of the birthplace frontage.”
A blacksmith is being hired to repair several of the 158-year-old railings bent out of shape by what the trust describes as “over enthusiastic visitors”.
The moving of the railings coincides with new lighting and resurfacing of the pedestrianised street where Shakespeare was born in 1564 and where he spent the first five years of his marriage to Anne Hathaway.
Not everyone is happy at the proposal to widen the area around the house, which until the railings were erected faced directly on to the street. Jenny Townsend, 68, a retired teacher, said: “Shakespeare’s home has stood for more than four centuries without the need for a security fence. Part of the appeal is how close you can get to the house where he was born.
“Surely security cameras or more staff to police the building is better than erecting barriers to stop one or two idiots from touching the building.”
But a trust spokesman said: “We have many people walking past the house every day. People lean across the railings to touch the house and this can cause damage to the wooden beams.”