Walking north, down the gentle slope of Broad Street, I realise, immediately, that I have stepped onto the film set. There at the end, at the corner where Bell Square and Church Street meet, is the building which doubled as the Shakespeare family home. Until 2015, it was a coaching inn, the Red Lion (a fact denoted by the carving of the feline in question, still affixed to the facade) – and now serves as a much-loved Indian restaurant, Lal Bagh.
But you would not know this – either on screen, or when you are standing at its front door. In its timber-framed glory, flawlessly preserved and free of obvious signage, the structure is a vision of Tudor England. It is also, unmistakably, the setting for the movie’s most poignant scene – the extended, cheery exchange of goodbyes between Mescal’s Shakespeare, who exits the shot to the right, bound for London, and the 11-year-old Hamnet (played by Jacobi Jupe) – who turns left, and returns to the warmth of the house.
