StageA raised platform that jutted out into the yard.
YardThe open ground round the stage, where people stood to watch.
GalleriesThree tiers of covered seats round the yard, for a higher price.
HeavensThe roof over the stage; its underside was painted like the sky.
Tiring houseThe building behind the stage where the actors dressed.
BalconyA gallery above the stage doors, for musicians and upper scenes.
Thatched roofThe straw roof over the galleries; the yard had no roof.
FlagA flag flown from a pole above the playhouse.
On and around the stage 4
ColumnsTwo tall posts on the stage that hold up the heavens.
Stage doorsDoors in the back wall, from the tiring house to the stage.
TrapdoorA hatch in the stage floor, leading to the space below.
HellThe space under the stage, reached through the trapdoor.
How this list was compiled: Read 2026-09-30; a name is kept only where two of these use it. (1) Wikipedia, Globe Theatre (the yard, where groundlings stood for a penny; three levels of seats round it; a rectangular stage platform thrust into the yard; a trapdoor to the cellarage beneath; two or three doors in the back wall, entering the tiring house where the actors dressed; a balcony above, which housed the musicians and served for scenes like Romeo and Juliet's balcony scene; large columns at either side of the stage supporting a roof whose ceiling was called the heavens, painted as a sky with clouds; the thatching that caught fire in 1613; built 1599, rebuilt by 1614, closed 1642), English Renaissance theatre (three levels of inward-facing galleries) and Shakespeare's Globe (the modern reconstruction's thatched roof and yard). (2) Folger Shakespeare Library, Shakespeare's theater, https://www.folger.edu/explore/shakespeares-theater/ : a central open yard with three tiers of covered seating round it and a bare, raised stage; a penny to stand in the yard; actors could come down from the heavens over the stage, or go in and out of the hell below by a trapdoor. (3) J. Q. Adams, Shakespearean Playhouses (1917), https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_V4RGjSmsLSoC : three galleries surrounding an open yard; a stage projecting into the yard with a tiring-house at the rear and a balcony overhead; the heavens and a flagpole rising above them; a roof of thatch; performances heralded by the flying of a flag; wooden columns. (4) E. K. Chambers, The Elizabethan Stage, vol. III (1923), https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.81073 : the tiring-house, the heavens supported on posts, the doors in the back wall, the gallery or balcony above, traps, and hell beneath the stage. Licence: own work
The drawing: Drawn for this site on 2026-09-30 from plain geometry; nothing traced. A reconstruction, not to scale. Licence: own work
How it works
Here are the parts of the Globe Theatre labeled on one drawing. The Globe was the open-air playhouse in London where many of Shakespeare's plays were first acted. Nobody knows exactly how it looked, so this is a reconstruction.
Read the full guide
The Globe Theatre labeled: the building
The playhouse was a ring of galleries, three floors of covered seats, round an open yard. People who paid a penny stood in the yard. A thatched roof covered the galleries only. A flag on a pole above the playhouse showed that a play would be given.
A diagram of the Globe Theatre with labels for the stage
The stage jutted out into the yard. Two columns on it held up the heavens, a roof with a ceiling painted like the sky. Actors came on through the stage doors from the tiring house, where they dressed. A balcony above the doors held the musicians. A trapdoor in the floor led down to the hell.
Heavens is the roof over the stage. Hell is the space under it.
Questions and answers
What are the parts of the Globe Theatre?
A yard open to the sky, three tiers of galleries round it, and a raised stage. Behind the stage was the tiring house, with a balcony above its doors. Over the stage was a roof called the heavens, and under it a space called hell.
What was the yard at the Globe?
The open ground round the stage. For a penny, people could stand there to watch the play. They were called groundlings. The yard had no roof, so they stood in the sun or the rain.
What was the tiring house?
The part of the playhouse behind the stage. Tiring is short for attiring, which means dressing. The actors dressed there and waited for their turn to go on through the stage doors.
Why was the roof over the stage called the heavens?
Its underside was painted as a sky with clouds, and actors could be lowered from it onto the stage. The space under the stage was called hell, and actors could come up from it through the trapdoor.
What happened to the Globe Theatre?
The first Globe was built in 1599 and burned down in 1613, when a stage cannon set fire to the thatch. A second Globe opened on the same spot by 1614. It closed in 1642 and was later pulled down.