Elizabeth I of England Samuel Pepys
Connection to This Location
# Bear Gardens, SE1 Standing on this weathered Bankside corner, you're positioned at the epicenter of early modern entertainment and royal spectacle—a place where the roar of baited bears once rivaled the applause in nearby playhouses. Queen Elizabeth I herself walked these grounds in the mid-16th ...
Location
Bear Gardens, SE1
Inscription
On this site was built the Davies Amphitheatre 1662-1682 the last bear-baiting ring of Bankside visited by Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn. To the north from mid 16th century was the Bear Gardens, a bear-baiting ring visited by Queen Elizabeth I and replaced by The Hope Playhouse 1614-1656, built for plays and bear-baiting where Ben Jonson's play 'Bartholomew Fair' was first performed