Take a Look at Australia’s Beautiful Shakespeare Room

William Shakespeare was born into a small town in the English West Midlands, but he would go on to touch the world. His work has inspired literature and drama in all corners of the globe, and reading his words continues to be a joy today, more than four centuries after his death.

There are many locations marking the life and career of William Shakespeare, not only in his home country. One of the most charming has to be The Shakespeare Room, at the State Library of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia.

Visiting the room is a little like stepping back in time, and stepping across continents and oceans. It is a piece of Tudor England in the heart of New South Wales. And it is a wonderful testament to one of the greatest writers and visionaries of all time.

The Birth of the Shakespeare Room

April 2016 represented 400 years since Shakespeare’s death. But the seeds of The Shakespeare Room were in fact sown a century prior to this – in 1916, and the 300th anniversary. This was when New South Wales’ Shakespeare Society held its fundraising activities, which were intended to help it build its very own memorial library.

These activities raised £500 – Australia didn’t adopt the dollar until 1966. This might not sound like much but would be worth around A$46,000 today. With this princely sum, the Society commissioned a statue of William Shakespeare himself and laid plans for the creation of the dedicated library.

Plans were a little slow to come to fruition, partly due to the ongoing First World War. The statue was not unveiled until a decade later, and eventually moved from the Garden Palace Grounds to its current location on Shakespeare Place when the Cahill Expressway was built in 1958. It took rather longer for the Shakespeare Library to emerge – it was opened in the Mitchell Library Building in 1943.

Visiting The Shakespeare Room

A step inside The Shakespeare Room is a visually arresting experience. The space is adorned floor-to-ceiling in finally-crafted timber – the work of expert woodcarver Charles Sherline, who used Australian materials like blackwood and Tasmanian oak to replicate the look and texture of English oak.

In true Tudor style, the window is made from stained glass. This time, the artisan behind the work was the famous Arthur Benfield, whose craftsmanship is also found in churches across Sydney. The rest of the room is also finely decorated, recalling the subtle grandeur of Tudor art and architecture. Hampton Court Palace, the seat of Cardinal Wolsey, provided significant inspiration during the project.

Of course, this is not simply a replica of a Tudor space. It’s designed to be the perfect complement to a journey into the poetic lyricism of Shakespeare himself. Many of Shakespeare’s works line the shelves on the walls of the room, and a copy of As You Like It, act II, scene VII – the famous “All the World’s a stage” passage – greets visitors, taken from the Second Folio of 1632 but probably written in 1599.

A Rich Collection of Work

The Shakespeare Room is a stunning place to visit, and a chance to lose yourself in a romantic vision of centuries gone by. However, this is only part of The State Library’s work. As well as providing a sumptuous, and excitingly-Tudor, treat for the senses, the institution also collects and maintains a huge selection of works by Shakespeare, on Shakespeare, or otherwise related to Shakespeare in some way.

This includes the bulk of his plays and poetic works – the leading collection of its kind anywhere in Australia. The collection began in the middle of the nineteenth century, and received its most prized possession – the only known copy of the 1623’s First Folio anywhere in the country – as a donation in 1885.

Along with this, the collection holds copies of the Second, Third, and Fourth Folios, as well as a wealth of texts related to the history of theatre, drama, and performance. It’s not just a collection of Shakespeare texts – it’s a rich and varied trove of writing that reflects the enormous and varied influence that William Shakespeare has had on the development of literature and stagecraft in the intervening centuries.

A Worthwhile Project, Long in the Making

When The Shakespeare Society began fundraising at the beginning of the last century, they were probably pleasantly surprised by the amount of money they received. They may also have been surprised, probably less pleasantly, that The Shakespeare Room would take almost 30 years to complete.

While such a delay must have been frustrating at the time, it’s a good thing they persevered. Today, the room offers a tantalizing glimpse into Shakespeare’s world and helps us immerse ourselves in his life and work. There are plenty of projects that are devoted to keeping Shakespeare’s words alive for generations to come, but this has got to be up there among the very best.

You can make your own visit to The Shakespeare Room at the NSW State Library, at 1 Shakespeare Place, Sydney, NSW. The attraction is accessible by car or public transport and is open from 9 AM to 8 PM Monday to Thursday, from 9 AM to 5 PM on Friday, and 10 AM to 5 PM at weekends.