26 BRITAIN
CULTURE
http://www.britain-magazine.comperspective. “Before Garrick, people were
only interested in Shakespeare’s plays and his
work in London,” says Dr Anjna Chouhan
from the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, which
has original artefacts from the Jubilee on
display in its latest exhibition, Be Inspired:
Shakespeare and Me. “Because Garrick cared
about Shakespeare’s birthplace, it made people
think they ought to care as well. Whatever
his motivations, he put Stratford on the map.”
For the town therefore, the Jubilee was
a triumph. The corporation were keen to
capitalise on all the publicity, but Garrick
atly refused a further collaboration. In fact,
he never returned there, instead giving them
some frank advice: “Let it not be said that
the town which gave birth to the rst genius
since the creation, is the most dirty, unseemly,
ill-paved wretched looking town in all
Britain,” he wrote. Harsh words, perhaps,
but Garrick was (to use a phrase coined
by his idol) being cruel to be kind. “Until
Garrick got there, no one had thought
about making the town inviting for visitors,”
Anjna explains, “but thereafter, there was
this desire to make it appealing.”
In the years that followed, Stratford
“calculatedly developed” around the house
on Henley Street where Shakespeare was
born. Thanks to the interest ignited by
Garrick’s Jubilee nearly 100 years earlier,
it was purchased in 1847 by a newly formed
Birthplace Trust, and opened to the public
as a museum. Although it had once stood
as part of a terrace, the houses either side
were pulled down, giving it a special
prominence and creating an iconic image.
The town’s infrastructure was simultaneously
improved, too, with access to the birthplace
being the planners’ main priority.
By 1864, the 300th anniversary of
Shakespeare’s birth, his home town could
nally be called tourist-ready. Victorian
visitors who came to celebrate had to face
none of the hardships borne by Garrick’s
rst pilgrims; there were newly paved streets,
a state-of-the-art sewage system, a railway
station, and, of course, the museum that
wasdedicated to the man himself.BOOK AHEAD
THE EXHIBITION
Shakespeare Birthplace Trust’s Full Story
ticket (£22.50 for an adult) includes entry to all five
of its properties. The new exhibition, Be Inspired:
Shakespeare and Me, with items relating to David
Garrick, runs until 31 December 2019.
http://www.shakespeare.org.uk