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The Fire
The fire started on the night of
the 2nd of September 1666 in a house that
belonged to Thomas Farynor. He was the king’s official baker. One night, Thomas finished work and prepared to leave. However, this time he forgot to put the fire in his oven out. Later that night, the embers set light to some wood that was nearby. By one o’clock in the morning, three hours after Thomas had gone to bed, the house and shop were well alight. Thomas woke to find the house full of smoke and escaped with his wife, daughter and maid. They went through an upstairs window, then onto the roof, however, the poor maid was too frightened because it was so high and she stayed in the house, becoming the first victim of the fire. As Thomas was leaving the fire was getting worse and worse.
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London 1666
At the time, London was “perfect” for
burning. The houses were in narrow streets and the
buildings were practically on top of one another. Also, tar was often used to build the houses and this burned wonderfully. To make matter worse, a strong wind blew that morning and the fire spread rapidly. Things got especially bad when the fire reached Thames Street where there were lots of warehouses full of flammable materials such as oil, alcohol, straw and coal.
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The Fire Burns
The man in
charge of dealing with the fire was Mayor Budworth.
At first he didn’t take the fire very seriously, and apparently said the infamous words:
“A woman might piss it out!”
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The Fire Burns
He went back to sleep, but
was woken up shortly afterwards to find that the
fire was getting serious. And by this time it was all too late. His advisers suggested destroying houses to create fire breaks. The Lord Mayor was initially concerned about who would pay for this deliberate damage. However, the king thought this was a good idea and ordered gangs of volunteers to blow up houses to stop the advancing fires. Unfortunately, the results weren’t very affective as the fire raged for three more days through the City. The fire eventually burned out at Temple Church near Holborn Bridge. Then, just when everyone thought it was safe, the fire suddenly flared up again.
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Pepys’ View
Our best account of the Fire comes
from the diaries of Samuel Pepys. He was an
important person at the time ( the Secretary of the Admiralty) and he watched the destruction from a safe position across the Thames. “It made me weep to see it,” he said. “The churches, houses, and all on fire and flaming at once. And a horrid noise the flames made, and the cracking of houses.”
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Pepys’ View
Here are some more of
Pepys impressions:
“Poor people staying in their houses
till the very fire touched them, and then running into boats, or clambering from one pair of stairs by the waterside to another. And among other things, the poor pigeons. They were loath to leave their houses, and hovered about the windows and balconies till some of them burned their wings and fell down.
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The Cost
The fire destroyed much of medieval
London; and within 5 days the city which Shakespeare
had known had ceased to exist. The destruction included 87 churches (including St. Paul’s Cathedral), 13.200 houses and 6 people (officially). The fire also destroyed goods and possessions worth many millions of pounds. In total, 80% of the city was destroyed. Some people lost everything, and over the following years thousands of people went to prison because they could no longer pay their bills.
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The Benefit
However, there is a positive
side to all this. The fire also put an
end to the Great Plague. This disease was carried by rats and most of them were killed in the fire. The number of plague victims dropped rapidly after the fire.
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The Monument
There’s construction commemorating the fire
that you can visit. It’s called the Monument and
it’s a 70 meter column. The architect Sir Christopher Wren proposed putting a statue of Charles II on top, but Charles objected as he didn’t want to be associated with the disaster. In the end, Sir Christopher Wren put a simple bowl with flames coming out of it.