The original Globe Theatre was built in 1599 by the acting company the Lord Chamberlain's Men, of which William Shakespeare was a member. It was destroyed by fire in 1613 during a performance of Shakespeare's Henry VIII, when a stage cannon misfired and set fire to the thatched roof.
The second Globe Theatre was built on the same site in 1614 and continued to be used until it was demolished in 1644 during the English Civil War.