The Byrom collection - Joy Hancox

Among the Collection's precise geometric drawings of little observed features of Westminster Abbey, the Temple Church in London, King's College Chapel in Cambridge and Milan Cathedral are what purport to be the setting-out plans for the original Globe Theatre, the Rose and five other Elizabethan playhouses.

The author made these extraordinary documents available to researchers involved in rebuilding the Globe on Bankside, who chose to discount their validity and Joy Hancox's interpretation of them. Since then archaeological excavations at the Globe site have lent support to the accounts in this book. Now that the new theatre is completed, it is already receiving criticism for its size, inadequate acoustics and poor sightlines. As the author reveals in her new Preface to the paperback edition of her book, her own interpretation of the Byrom drawings would result in a smaller structure of only eight sides in which an overall harmony of design comes together to provide good sightlines and good acoustics.

Additional evidence is provided in a new book (to be published shortly) by Professor John Gleeson of the University of San Francisco in support of the Globe plans found in the Byrom Collection. Even more remarkable, the concept behind all these architectural designs