The Red Bull was an inn-yard conversion erected in Clerkenwell, London operating in the 17th century. For more than four decades, it entertained audiences drawn primarily from the City and its suburbs, developing a reputation over the years for rowdiness. After Parliament closed the theatres in 1642, it continued to host illegal performances intermittently, and when the theatres reopened after the Restoration, it became a legitimate venue again. There is a myth that it burned down in the Great Fire of London but the direct reason for its end is unclear. Design The Red Bull was constructed in about 1605 on St John Street in Clerkenwell on a site corresponding to the eastern end of modern-day Hayward's Place. Contemporary documents reveal that it was converted from a yard in an inn. This origin accounts for its square-ish shape, shared, for example, by the original Fortune Theatre among playhouses of the time. The Red Bull inn's name may relate to drovers bringing cattle down St John Street toward the markets at Smithfield. The conversion was undertaken by Aaron Holland, owner of the inn from 1602, on land he had leased (along with an actor named Martin Slater) from Anne Bedingfeild. Evidence indicates that its size was comparable to Globe Theatre and Fortune, its competitors. In its early days, the company of Queen Anna of Denmark's men offered credible competition to the King's Men and Prince Henry's Men. W. J. Lawrence argued that the theatre was roofed over in the early 1620s, but this idea was largely refuted by Leslie Hotson and G. E. Bentley. The Red Bull was most likely similar to the other outdoor theatres against which it competed, with an uncurtained thrust-forward stage backed by a tiring house and balcony, surrounded by standing room, and overlooked by galleries on three walls. It may well have held more than the capacity of The Globe. History Jacobean and Caroline A draft royal patent for the Queen's company, mentioning Thomas Greene, its clown, suggests that it was formed in about 1604, and that the playhouse was built for that troupe. In addition to Greene, Martin Slater, Aaron Holland (a servant of the Earl of Devonshire), Thomas Swinnerton and Christopher Beeston were known to have owned shares in the enterprise. Perhaps because they had learned from Philip Henslowe's recent problems with neighbourhood opposition in building the Fortune, they did not approach the court