Blackfriars Gatehouse (Shakespeare's former property), London

If you head to the Cockpit pub in the City of London today, you're standing right where Shakespeare once made a very smart real estate move. The Blackfriars Gatehouse, sitting just a pint’s throw from the old Blackfriars Playhouse, was the Bard’s one and only known property purchase in London. Pretty handy location, too—King’s Men, Shakespeare’s theater company, were performing his plays at Blackfriars just like they were over at the Globe, keeping the Elizabethan drama scene very much alive.

Now, a little backstory: the theater itself was built on the bones of a Dominican monastery founded way back in 1275—until Henry VIII, in full "dissolver of monasteries" mode, shut it down in 1538. Goodbye monks, hello actors!

Some decades later, on March 10, 1613, Shakespeare bought the Gatehouse from one Henry Walker—a "citizen and minstrel" (i.e., musician with property to spare)—for a hefty £140. That deed is still around today, safely tucked in the London Metropolitan Archives. And here’s the kicker: it’s one of only six places on Earth where you can see Shakespeare’s actual signature. Six. Total.

Despite all the juicy proximity to two major theaters, there's no hard proof that Shakespeare actually lived in the Gatehouse. Maybe he thought about it. Maybe he liked the idea of an easy stroll to work. But when he died in Stratford-upon-Avon three years later, the house stayed more investment property than bachelor pad—bequeathed to his daughter, Susanna, who got the last word in her father's London affairs.