Shakespeare: Stratford-Upon-Avon

Visit Shakespeare’s Birthplace – William Shakespeare’s childhood home in the heart of Stratford-upon-Avon. Hear tales of Shakespeare’s family life and get up close to objects from the Trust’s world class collections as you discover how the extraordinary playwright continues to shape our lives today.

Information on the early life of Shakespeare from the British Library.

Stratford-upon-Avon is the town where William Shakespeare was born and is buried. Every year, millions of people celebrate his life and work by visiting the town.

Visit Stratford-upon-Avon introduces you to a market town with more than 800 years of history, containing not only many buildings that survive today and would have been familiar to Shakespeare, but also a thriving community offering a wide variety of leisure, accommodation and shopping experiences. So take a moment to have a look around the site!

To see or not to see? Nonliterary types might find touristy Stratford-Upon-Avon to be much ado about nothing, but Shakespeare's hometown is blanketed with opportunities for Bardolatry. It's an easy side-trip from London, but an overnight stay is best to take in a performance of the world's best Shakespeare ensemble.

This is the story of how a young Englishman named William Shakespeare stormed London's theater scene in the late 16th century, and wrote a bunch of plays and poems that have had pretty good staying power. We'll learn about Shakespeare's beginnings, his family, and how he broke into theater.

To soar over Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire is to be transported back in time to the age of William Shakespeare; a man born in humble circumstances who would go on to become the most celebrated writer of all time.