Shakespeare's London - Today

Pascale Harter introduces a special essay from BBC arts correspondent Vincent Dowd, as he goes in search of the traces of Shakespeare's era still visible on the streets of London.

It's a subject close to the heart and the location of BBC staff at Bush House, just across the River Thames from the original site of William Shakespeare's Globe Theatre. England's most famous playwright may have died almost 400 years ago but this summer he is everywhere.

The World Shakespeare Festival means each of his 38 plays is getting at least one staging. Theatre groups from as far afield as China and Sudan have come to put on their productions.

While they're here, perhaps they'll go in search of signs of Shakespeare's own life in London. You know, a house he lived in, a theatre he wrote for - but what would they be likely to find?