Explore the real-world places that appear in Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell. Each location on the map shows what happens there in the novel, the real history of the place, and what's there today. Featured locations include New Place, Holy Trinity Church, The Swan Theatre, Stratford Market, Anne Hathaway's Cottage and 9 more.
Chapel Street — The Shakespeare family home
New Place is the grand house where William Shakespeare, his wife Anne Hathaway, and their children Susanna, Hamnet, and Judith live. William has returned from London with newfound wealth and status, purchasing the second-largest house in Stratford. The novel opens with Hamnet falling ill in this house; he dies in his chamber while his father is away in London. Anne tends to him desperately, trying folk remedies and calling physicians, but cannot save him. The house becomes a site of unbearable grief after his death.
New Place was built circa 1483 by a wealthy merchant named Hugh Bott. When Shakespeare purchased it in 1597, it was one of Stratford's finest properties. The original Tudor-era house stood until 1759 when it was demolished by a subsequent owner.
New Place is now owned by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. The gardens are open to the public, and visitors can walk the grounds where the Shakespeare family lived. The foundations of the original house are marked, and there is an exhibition space explaining the house's history.
Visit: New Place (historic site)
Old Town — Burial place of William Shakespeare and Hamnet
Holy Trinity Church is where Hamnet's body is buried after he dies of the plague. The church becomes a place of pilgrimage for the grief-stricken family. In the novel, Anne visits his small grave repeatedly, and the churchyard represents the permanence of death and the loss that will haunt William for the rest of his life. The church's baptismal records connect the living Shakespeare children to their mortality.
Holy Trinity Church was built in the 13th century and is one of Stratford's most important medieval structures. William Shakespeare was baptized here in 1564, and he is buried in the chancel. Hamnet Shakespeare was buried here in 1596. The church remains an active parish church.
Holy Trinity Church is one of England's most visited parish churches. Visitors can see the graves of William and Anne Shakespeare marked in the floor of the chancel. The church contains original medieval architecture alongside later additions. Guided tours and exhibitions explain the Shakespeare family history.
Visit: Holy Trinity Church (historic site)
Bankside, London — William's theatrical world
The Swan Theatre represents the world of London theater that pulls William away from his family. While William works on plays and performances, Hamnet remains in Stratford with Anne. The novel uses the theater as a counterpoint to domestic life — William's success onstage is weighed against his absence from his dying son. The theater world brings him fame and fortune but costs him the presence needed at home.
The Swan Theatre was built in 1595 on Bankside and was one of London's major playhouses. It could hold approximately 3,000 spectators and was known for its impressive architecture. It was destroyed by fire in 1613 during a performance of Henry VIII.
Shakespeare's Globe Theatre now stands near the original Swan's location. Visitors can tour a replica of the original Globe (rebuilt in 1997) which shows how plays of Shakespeare's era were performed. The area contains the Shakespeare Museum and various theatrical exhibitions.
Visit: Shakespeare's Globe Theatre (theater)
The High Street and Bridge Street — Hub of commerce and disease
The market square is where Stratford's busy commercial life takes place and where plague rumors spread like wildfire. Anne navigates the market seeking herbs, remedies, and supplies while plague cases increase in the town. The market represents the intersection of normalcy and catastrophe — merchants conducting business as death encroaches. It's also where news travels, including word of deaths and infections.
Stratford market has operated continuously since medieval times, with weekly markets documented from the 13th century. By Shakespeare's era, it was a bustling center for local agriculture, cloth, and goods trade. The market generated significant revenue for the town.
Stratford's market continues as a weekly event. The Market Square and surrounding High Street still contain shops and the market structure, though now tourist-oriented. Historic timber-framed buildings line the square, many dating to Shakespeare's time.
Visit: Stratford Market Square (landmark)
Shottery — Anne's childhood home and refuge
Anne Hathaway's family cottage in Shottery is where Anne grew up and where she sometimes retreats in her memory and grief. The cottage represents her connection to the countryside and her life before William. After Hamnet's death, the isolation of country life feels both comforting and isolating. The cottage is her anchor to a simpler, pre-tragedy existence.
Anne Hathaway's Cottage in Shottery dates to 1463, making it one of Warwickshire's oldest buildings. Anne lived here until her marriage to William Shakespeare in 1582. It remained in the Hathaway family for over 400 years.
Anne Hathaway's Cottage is now owned by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust and is one of the region's most visited historic properties. Visitors can tour the fully furnished cottage with period pieces and see the gardens. The cottage contains exhibits on Anne and her family.
Visit: Anne Hathaway's Cottage (historic site)
Church Lane — Where Hamnet received his education
Stratford Grammar School is where Hamnet attended lessons and received his education. The school represents his growth and promise before illness strikes. The novel references Hamnet's schooling and his separation from his father, who was away in London establishing his career. The schoolroom becomes a ghost of what will never be — Hamnet's future education and adulthood cut short by plague.
Stratford Grammar School was established in 1295 and is one of England's oldest continuously operating schools. William Shakespeare himself almost certainly attended the school in the 1570s. It operated as a free school for local boys of reasonable family status.
King Edward VI School (the modern name) still operates at its original location. The original medieval buildings have been extensively modified, but the school's continuous history is preserved. Visitors can see the early Tudor schoolroom and learn about its educational traditions.
Visit: King Edward VI School (historic site)
Throughout Stratford — The lifeblood and threat
The River Avon runs through Stratford and serves as both a vital resource and a symbol of danger. The novel uses the river as a metaphor for the passage of time, the unstoppable flow of events, and the spreading of plague through water and commerce. Characters cross the bridge, boats bring goods and disease, and the river represents the town's connection to the wider world that brings both prosperity and pestilence.
The River Avon has been central to Stratford's existence since Anglo-Saxon times. It provided water power, transportation, and trade routes. Medieval bridges connected the settlement across its flow. The river's commerce made Stratford a significant market town.
The River Avon remains a scenic feature of Stratford. The Clopton Bridge (built 1480s) still carries traffic across. The riverside is now a picturesque walking area with parks and paths. Tour boats operate on the river during summer months.
Visit: Clopton Bridge & River Avon Walk (landmark)
The commercial heart of Stratford
Henley Street is the main commercial thoroughfare where Shakespeare's father John had his glove-making business and where the Shakespeare family would have conducted their daily business. The street represents the world of trade and craft that was the foundation of the family's respectability. It contrasts with William's theatrical ambitions in London and Anne's domestic concerns in raising the children.
Henley Street has been Stratford's principal street since medieval times. Wealthy merchants and tradesmen lived and worked here. The Shakespeare Birthplace, where William was born, stands on this street in the original family home.
Henley Street remains the heart of Stratford's commercial and tourist district. The Shakespeare Birthplace is now a major museum. Many of the timber-framed buildings date to the 16th and 17th centuries and house shops, restaurants, and hotels.
Visit: Shakespeare's Birthplace (museum)
Church Lane — Site of childhood play and learning
The schoolhouse yards are where Hamnet would have played with other children and attended his lessons. The novel imagines Hamnet's childhood activities, his friendships, and his development as an intelligent, curious boy. The yards represent the normalcy and joy of childhood that is abruptly ended. This space embodies everything Hamnet will never grow into — adulthood, education, marriage, and his own family.
The Grammar School's yards were used for both educational activities and recreational play. Students would have studied Latin, rhetoric, and theology in the connected buildings. The yards served as gathering spaces for the town's educated families.
The school yards remain part of the King Edward VI School campus. While the exact medieval layout has changed with school expansions, the core location maintains its educational function. The area includes playing fields and modern school facilities alongside historic structures.
The Warwickshire countryside surrounding Stratford
Shottery is the small village where Anne's family lived and represents the rural world of farming and country life. The novel contrasts this pastoral setting with the urban dangers of plague-ridden Stratford. When disease spreads, the countryside appears both safer and more isolated. The open fields and countryside are where characters seek refuge and reflection, yet plague reaches even here.
Shottery was a small agricultural hamlet in medieval Warwickshire. The Hathaway family were substantial farmers in the area. The village remained largely unchanged for centuries, with scattered farms and properties.
Shottery is now a small village within metropolitan Stratford. Anne Hathaway's Cottage is the major attraction. The surrounding area contains period farmhouses and maintains a rural character despite proximity to town.
Visit: Anne Hathaway's Cottage & Shottery Village (landmark)
Bridge Street — Entertainment and spectacle
The bearbaiting pit is mentioned as part of Stratford's entertainment culture. It represents the crude spectacles and casual cruelty of the era that coexist with both high art and domestic tragedy. The contrast between the entertainment that draws crowds and the silent suffering happening in homes like the Shakespeares' highlights the indifference of public life to private grief.
Bearbaiting was a popular entertainment in Elizabethan England. Animals were pitted against each other or against dogs for public viewing. Most market towns had bearbaiting pits. The practice continued into the 17th century despite religious objections.
No physical remnants of the bearbaiting pit remain. Bridge Street is now a typical market town street with shops and restaurants. A small plaque or marker may reference the historical entertainment.
Holy Trinity Church graveyard — Mass burial site of 1596
The graveyard contains multiple plague victims from the 1596 outbreak that kills Hamnet. The novel shows Anne witnessing the community's mounting deaths and burying her son among many others. Each grave represents a family's devastation. The graveyard becomes a symbol of plague's indiscriminate cruelty — children, adults, rich and poor buried in the same earth. Hamnet is not alone in death, but this community of graves offers no comfort.
Plague swept through Stratford in 1596, one of several outbreaks in the town's history. Parish records show a dramatic spike in burials during this period. The church graveyard contains mass burials of plague victims from multiple epidemics throughout the medieval and early modern periods.
Holy Trinity Church's graveyard remains and is carefully maintained by the church. Many medieval and early modern graves have been lost to time and weathering. The graveyard is accessible to visitors and remains a place of quiet reflection. Grave markers and records document the town's history of disease and loss.
Visit: Holy Trinity Church Graveyard (historic site)
High Street — Remedies and desperation
The apothecary's shop is where Anne desperately seeks cures and remedies for Hamnet's plague symptoms. She purchases herbs, poultices, and treatments that ultimately prove useless. The apothecary represents the limitations of early modern medicine and the false hope that accompanies illness. Anne's visits to the shop, her questions about treatments, and the apothecary's cautious responses capture her frantic maternal attempts to save her son from a disease beyond her ability to defeat.
Apothecaries in the 16th century were part physician, part herbalist, and part merchant. They sold herbs, compounds, and advice about treatment. Many were trained through apprenticeship rather than formal medical education. Apothecaries occupied a middle ground between folk remedies and university-trained physicians.
No specific 16th-century apothecary building remains. The High Street contains various shops, restaurants, and tourist establishments. The historical role of apothecaries is documented in museum exhibits and historical societies.
Bankside, London — William's professional world
The Rose Theatre is where William Shakespeare worked as an actor and playwright, part of the vibrant London theater world that kept him away from his family in Stratford. The novel juxtaposes William's theatrical success and creative flourishing with the tragedy unfolding at home. His absence in London while Hamnet dies becomes the novel's central tragedy — proximity and distance, fame and family, ambition and love cannot be balanced.
The Rose Theatre was built in 1587 on Bankside and was one of London's first purpose-built playhouses. It was the site of many early performances including Marlowe's plays and early Shakespeare works. The theater was rebuilt and expanded in 1592. It closed in 1605.
The Rose Theatre's site is now marked and partially excavated. A modern Rose Theatre was built nearby in 1988. The site contains an interactive exhibition explaining the original theater's history and plays. The location is a major heritage site for Shakespeare enthusiasts.
Visit: The Rose Theatre Exhibition & Site (historic site)
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