Pyramus and Thisbe: the love story behind the ‘party wall’

Posted on: 4 November, 2026

What do two forbidden lovers, Shakespeare and The Party Wall etc. Act have in common? Quite a lot, as Senior lecturer in BSc (Hons) Building Surveying, Dominic Bottone, reveals. 

Pyramus and Thisbe had a problem. They were hopelessly in love, lived next door to one another in ancient Babylon and, thanks to a bitter rivalry between their families, were forbidden from meeting. 

Fortunately, the houses where they lived were next door and not only that they shared a wall. Even more fortunately, that wall had a crack in it. Through this little opening, the lovers whispered their affections to one another, turning the very thing that kept them apart into their only means of communication. 

A wall with a speaking part 

This story has a link to The Party Wall etc. Act 1996 (PWA) and the role of party wall surveyor.  How so I hear you cry?  Well, stand by your beds, let me explain. 

The tale of Pyramus and Thisbe is a story from Roman mythology (albeit, as with many things Roman, it was a story stolen from the Greeks, who may have even got it from earlier civilisations). It was told by Ovid, the Roman poet who lived during the reign of Caesar Augustus (he who, at the time of the birth of Christ, issued out a decree that all the world should be taxed). Ovid provides the earliest recorded account of their story in his narrative poem ‘Metamorphoses’. However, it is more likely that you will have come across this story in another work of fiction, that created by Shakespeare. 

In Shakespeare’s play ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ there is a performance by the ‘mechanicals’, who endeavour to provide a rather crude performance of the story, led by Nick Bottom, who plays Pyramus. There have been other iterations of this story. Shakespeare drew on it again in ‘Romeo and Juliet’ and, by association, it found its way into Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim and Arthur Laurents’ musical ‘West Side Story’. There was even an episode of ‘The Simpsons’ that provided its own unique interpretation. 

The story is about forbidden love but a crucial element of the story, as far as this article is concerned, is that in the narrative there is a shared wall. Indeed, Shakespeare gives the wall a speaking part, played by Tom Snout. Nick Bottom, as Pyramus, even addresses the wall directly: 

‘And thou, O wall, O sweet, O lovely wall, 

That stand’st between her father’s ground and mine.’ 

Now I could go on with the story and what it entails but, to be brutally honest, it’s not really relevant to the PWA. What is relevant is the shared wall because that shared wall could fall within the definition of a party wall, as defined in the PWA. I am sure you are now seeing where this is going. 

What exactly is a party wall? 

The built environment comprises many, many walls, in various different guises, and they have various uses ranging from keeping the weather out to supporting a building and thus ensuring it does not collapse. There are also walls that divide properties into separate buildings and rooms. Walls are not just external, but internal as well.  

Now, there are many rules and regulations governing all these types of walls.  There are the obvious requirements set out in the building regulations here in the UK and building codes around the world, but in England and Wales we have another set of rules which cover shared walls.  Those rules are set out in The Party Wall etc. Act.  This Act sets out the dos and don’ts when it comes to building works related to a shared wall such as that described by Ovid and Shakespeare 

The PWA was passed in 1996 and came into force in 1997.  It applies only to England and Wales, not to Scotland and Northern Ireland and it is firmly based on the London Building Acts (Amendment) Act 1939 Part VI, (LBA).  The LBA governed rules relating to party walls in central London, (the old London County Council to be precise), amongst a whole range of other regulations. The LBA was in fact the last in the line of many building regulations that stretch back to the Great Fire of London in 1666.  There are some fundamental changes and various small tweaks in the PWA, but overall the LBA is well and truly its parent. 

All well and good, but to keep this story moving we do need to define a party wall.  A party wall is not just about it being shared.  A party wall is a wall which stands astride the boundary between two properties or separates buildings under different ownership. Many terraced properties or semi-detached properties are divided by a party wall, although there are other structural arrangements such as two walls up against one another that may also exist in such situations. 

The Act has some things to say about all such walls but I don’t want to bore you with that. The Act also covers matters not relating to party walls hence the use of the abbreviation, ‘etc.’ in the title. The ‘etc’, part of the Act covers such fascinating things as excavations within a certain distance of another structure under different ownership, building works up to a boundary and rules governing access to neighbouring properties and other miscellaneous items that have to be considered when carrying out works defined by the Act. 

The Pyramus and Thisbe Society 

So, the relevance of Pyramus and Thisbe?  Well, back in 1974, certain people in London, practitioners of the dark arts of being a party wall surveyor under the LBA decided to set up a club as a forum for discussion on all matters connected with party walls, then governed by the LBA. One of them, maybe others as well, was a bit of a Shakespeare buff, and knowing the story of Pyramus and Thisbe from ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ thought it would be rather novel to call the forum the Pyramus and Thisbe Club. And there’s the link between Ovid and party walls. 

Some of you may wonder what members of such a Club have to talk about. Well, to be honest, quite a lot and they have a tendency to go on, and on, and on about their chosen subject. With the introduction of social media they have been allowed to go on for even longer. I plead guilty of such involvement. 

In later years the club became a learned society and changed its name to the Pyramus & Thisbe Society. It now has rules for membership and a code of conduct. It has become more than just a talking shop. 

Interestingly, the Society’s logo features the two lovers, representing not only the original tale but also the importance of collaboration and communication in resolving party wall disputes. Quite appropriate, given that the lovers’ only means of communication was through the very wall that separated them. 

Love, walls and misunderstandings 

So what happened to Pyramus and Thisbe? Well, to cut a long story short (spoiler alert), they both sadly died. Their deaths occur following a misunderstanding, not too dissimilar to that of Romeo and Juliet. 

As with many ancient tales there are underlying themes to the story of Pyramus and Thisbe such as forbidden love, miscommunication, fate and devotion unto death. 

Forbidden love and devotion unto death are not usually found when dealing with party wall matters although miscommunication and possibly fate do raise their heads on various occasions. 

But perhaps that is the point of this rather unusual association between ancient mythology and modern legislation. Even when a wall separates two neighbours, communication remains essential. And it is surely better to resolve a misunderstanding by talking to one another than to let matters end as they did for poor Pyramus and Thisbe.