The Shakespeare Houses: Which Are Open and What They Cost

Stratford sells "the Shakespeare houses" as if they were one thing, and they are not. Three are open to the public and run by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. Two more are closed to general visits. One that people assume belongs to the same set, the Schoolroom, is run by a different charity with its own ticket and its own hours. Get that straight before you queue and the day goes easily.

What is open

Shakespeare's Birthplace is the timber house on Henley Street, and it runs timed entry, so book online and turn up inside your slot. From 16 March to 1 November 2026 it opens daily 10am to 5pm, last entry 4.30pm; from 2 November to 23 December it is 10am to 4pm, last entry 3.30pm. The Trust's price for an adult is £25 online and £27 on the door, and that ticket includes New Place Gardens, the garden on the site of the house Shakespeare bought in 1597 and where he died in 1616. The ticket lasts twelve months. Nobody has to cram Stratford into a single Saturday.

Anne Hathaway's Cottage is out at Shottery. It is £15 online on its own, but only £5 extra if you buy it with the Birthplace ticket, which is the only sensible way to do it. Same seasonal hours as the Birthplace. The Trust says the walk out from the town centre takes 30 to 35 minutes, and it publishes a walking map.

New Place Gardens is on Chapel Street, about ten minutes' walk from the Birthplace by the Trust's reckoning. The Trust lists it as open daily 11am to 3pm, last entry 2.30pm, from 1 September to 23 December 2026. Outside that window the Trust's opening times page is the place to check, so do not build a February day around it without looking.

What is not

Hall's Croft and Mary Arden's Farm, the other two Trust properties, "remain closed to general visits", in the Trust's words. Hall's Croft hosts A-level and higher education groups, and Mary Arden's Farm runs primary school workshops. They will not appear on a Birthplace ticket. If a listing tells you otherwise, it is out of date.

The Schoolroom is separate

Shakespeare's Schoolroom and Guildhall on Church Street is run by the Shakespeare's Schoolroom Trust and sells its own tickets. It opens every day at 11am, not 10, because King Edward VI School still uses the building for lessons until 11am on term days. Last museum entry is 4.15pm and it closes at 5pm. On its own it is £15 for an adult. Add it to a Birthplace ticket and it is £10 extra, which makes the full run of Birthplace, New Place, the Schoolroom and Anne Hathaway's Cottage £40 for an adult online (£35 without the cottage).

Booking and timing

The order that works: book the Birthplace slot first, then fit the rest around it. Henley Street fills from mid morning, and the timed slot is the one part you cannot improvise. The Schoolroom is the easy afternoon fallback because it is open until 5pm. Children aged 3 to 17 pay half, and under 3s are free. If you live in a CV37 postcode you can visit the Birthplace, Anne Hathaway's Cottage and New Place free with the Trust's Residents Go Free ticket, which is worth knowing if you are staying with someone local.

Two days, not one

If you have the twelve-month ticket in your pocket, the easy version is a Henley Street morning and a Chapel Street afternoon on the first day, with the Schoolroom and Holy Trinity the same afternoon, and the walk out to Shottery on the second. Holy Trinity sits outside all of these tickets: church entry is free and the chancel with the grave is £5 for an adult and £1 for under 18s, and its hours run Monday to Saturday from April to August but only weekends from November to March. None of the Trust's tickets cover the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, which is a separate organisation with its own guide.

Prices and hours are as published by the Trust and the Schoolroom on 29 September 2026. Both change by season, and the Trust's listed hours stop at 23 December.