Image: A render of a chamber pot in the digital space (Arcade XR)
While Shakespeare’s daughter’s home undergoes restoration, visitors can explore Hall’s Croft through a new virtual archive featuring 3D rooms, medical history and Susanna’s rich world.
A new online archive has been created which offers online access to Hall’s Croft, the home of Susanna, eldest daughter of Anne and William Shakespeare.
The archive has been created by University of Brighton’s Dr Ailsa Grant Ferguson in collaboration with the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. A resulting mixed reality experience has been created by digital studio Arcade XR, using 3D photography and augmented reality.
‘Hall’s Croft: A Spatial Archive’ includes a virtual reconstruction of three rooms within Hall’s Croft in Stratford-upon-Avon. It is part of a £300,000 Arts and Humanities Research Council (part of UKRI) Fellowship.

The project is revealed as the building itself is closed to all but learning groups while its upper floors undergo restoration and conservation.
While closed, online users can instead navigate curated content and explore the projects’ key themes – Home, Medicine, Garden and Susanna – by interacting with the digital objects connected to the Hall family’s history.

Dr Grant Ferguson, Principal Lecturer in Literature at the University of Brighton, said: “This virtual space has granted my wish to lift the lid on the life and space of early modern women, to challenge our assumptions about Susanna beyond her restriction to daughter and wife and show the richness of her world.”
The virtual space is available to explore on the dedicated website.