Reeds hold out rain within the wooden O

THE FIRST thatched roof to grace London's skyline since the Great Fire of 1666 was completed last week as master thatchers laid down their tools at the new Globe - a replica of Shakespeare's playhouse. Using techniques employed in 1599, when the original Globe was built, teams of thatchers from all over Britain set 6,000 bundles of water reed on the theatre's roof.

The only concession to modern standards was a sprinkler system protruding from the thatch and the use of fireboard and a powerful fire retardant on the reeds. The original Globe - the "wooden O" of the Bard's Henry V - burnt down in 1613. A blast from a prop cannon set the thatch ablaze during a production of Henry VIII.

Thatch was originally ruled out by the architects, Pentagram Design, because of strict fire regulations.

"Obviously we didn't want to repeat history," said Pentagram's John Greenfield. "We drew up designs for a tiled roof with a lantern on top because we didn't think thatch would satisfy fire standards. Luckily the thatchers came up with a method of treating the thatch against fire, so we changed the plans."

As the Globe's original plans are thought to have been destroyed by fire, the architects were in doubt as to whether to use straw, combed wheat or water-reed thatch. But excavations at the site of the neighbouring Rose theatre - a contemporary playhouse - revealed remains of water reed, a pliant material which can be laid at a steep angle.

Another clue lay in The Tempest, where Gonzalo says: "His tears run down his beard, like winter's drops from eaves of reeds. Your charm so strongly works 'em that if you now beheld them, your affections would become tender."

The thatch is fixed down with horizontal metal rods and 9in thatching nails. It has a life expectancy of about 50 years, as the ends of the reeds gradually rot and blow away. The thatching of 15 bays - round galleries where the audience sits - took six months and cost £40,000.

The reconstruction of the Globe was conceived by the late Sam Wanamaker, the American actor/director, who on a visit to London in 1949 was shocked to find that the only monument to Shakespeare's workplace was a blackened plaque on a brewery wall above the foundations of the Globe.

He established a trust to raise funds to rebuild the Globe in 1970, although building did not start until 1989. Sam Wanamaker died in 1993, but his vision of a theatre in the original style is being fulfilled.

The remaining five bays will be thatched once the central stage is built this summer. The £12m playhouse, in Southwark, close to the Thames in south London, will open in 1996, when plays by Shakespeare and his contemporaries will be performed.

Surrounded by offices and dilapidated council blocks, the Globe is in a far more sober setting than it was in Shakespeare's day. Then, Southwark was outside the city walls and was the site of brothels, taverns and bear-baiting rings. Sir Christopher Wrenis said to have lived in the house backing on to the site of the theatre so he could have a clear view of St Paul's.

The thatchers now working in the Globe, who are mainly from the West Country, were unused to working at such a height since thatch is most commonly used on cottages. They braved high winds, sleet and snow - often burying themselves in the reed now scattered around the site to keep warm.

"It was rather like mountaineering," said Rob Harvie-Clark, proprietor of Master Thatchers (Sidmouth).

"It was very high up and very steep. We just had to cling on. Our crane driver stopped when the winds reached 60 miles per hour."

The exhibition which has been set up in the half-completed refreshment area became a haven for frozen thatchers,whose language is now enlivened by the odd Shakespearean phrase.