How did Shakespeare help keep WW1 soldiers safe and healthy?

London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, Keppel Street, London
How did Shakespeare help keep WW1 soldiers safe and healthy? image
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Event has ended
This event ended on Sunday 18th of September 2016
Admission
Free
Venue Information
London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
Keppel Street, WC1E 7HT
Nearest Tube/Rail Stations
Goodge Street 0.17 miles

This installation will take people back in time to remember the Shakespeare Hut, a forgotten building that opened 100 years ago and which was a safe haven for nearly 100,000 New Zealand First World War soldiers.

Visitors can step into a replica room designed from a photograph taken inside the original building and view rarely seen images showing the Hut in action.

During the First World War the YMCA erected over 4,000 huts to provide soldiers with food and a place to rest, either on the frontline or at home in military camps and railway stations. For the duration of the War, 35,000 unpaid volunteers and 26,000 paid YMCA staff ran the huts, serving 4.8 million troops in 1,500 canteens.

The Shakespeare Hut was one of the largest YMCA huts in London. Originally the land was acquired to build a Shakespeare Memorial National Theatre to mark the playwright’s tercentenary, but when war broke out it was deemed unsuitable to be using funds for buildings not connected with the war effort. It was therefore decided that a YMCA Hut should be built, mainly for New Zealand servicemen, and named as a memorial to Shakespeare.

Photo credit: Shakespeare Hut lounge - YMCA image supplied courtesy of the Cadbury Research Library, University of Birmingham’

Tags: Exhibition

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