Berry notes that "it became a playhouse partly because of where it was — just outside the City of London … a few feet beyond the ordinary jurisdiction of the lord mayor and his aldermen".
However, it was being used as an extempore venue for plays at least as early as 1557, when an injunction from the Privy Council ordered the Lord Mayor of London to send officers to the Boar's Head to prevent the performance of "a lewd play called a Sack full of News", arrest the performers and confiscate the play-book.
[7] On 28 November 1594, Jane and Henry Poley, who owned the inn, entered a lease agreement with Oliver and Susan Woodliffe.
Sisson suggests that Poley "found it more profitable to develop the buildings and site of the Boar's head, or to dispose of it to a speculator, for other purposes than those of an inn and a theatre, in the rapid growth of this residential and industrial suburb of London.".
[14] The Boar's Head featured a covered, square playing area in an age of polygonal playhouses (such as the Globe, the Swan and the Rose) and was surrounded on all sides by the audience.