Edward De Vere as Shakespeare

Hedingham Castle, Essex

Edward De Vere was born at Hedingham Castle in April, 1550. The keep (towerlike building) and the only building of the former castle still standing today, was built in the 1130s and 1140s. The manor had been awarded to Aubrey Vere in 1086 by William the Conqueror.

Fisher's Folly just outside Bishopsgate was Edward De Vere's London home from 1579 - 1588.

At Fisher's Folly (above) he and his "lewd" friends, as William Cecil put it, worked, partied and created the English modern drama. Interestingly the two first commercial theatres to be built in London, the Curtain and the Theatre, were both located about 500 metres further North on the same road out of London. Anthony Munday and John Lyly, both writers, were hired as De Vere's private secretaries. Lyly is regarded by many scholars as perhaps the single most influential Elizabethan play-write for Shakespeare.

Today, the pub the Bull is located on the same spot. (When will the City of London place a blue plaque on that building?)

De Vere and Elizabeth Trentham's first Hackney home in Stoke Newington.

When Edward De Vere moved out of London, he and his wife Elizabeth Trentham lived in Stoke Newington, before they bought the King's Place (later Brooke House) in Hackney. Although Edward hasn't got any blue plaques (yet!) the Hackney Borough Council commemorated him with this one, at 173 Stoke Newington Church Street, N16.

King's Place, later re-named Brooke House in Hackney,  North London, became Edward De Vere's last home.  The building was torn down in the 1950's by the local authorities.

Interior of Brooke House from the 1920's. Probably the gallery restyled as sitting room.