The Great Fire of London

On Sunday 2^nd September 1666, a fire started in Thomas Farynor’s (the official baker to King Charles II) shop in Pudding Lane, London. It appears Thomas Farynor forgot to douse the fires in his bakers oven and some embers set light to some firewood nearby. By one o’clock in the morning the building was engulfed by flames, Farynor and his family escaped by climbing through a window onto the roof and across the rooftops. His maid unfortunately didn’t make it out of the burning building and she became the first person to die as a result of the fire.

From Farynor’s shop, the flames spread to the Star Inn on Fish Street Hill. The closely packed buildings made of timber and pitch ignited quickly and the strong winds swiftly spread the fire down to warehouses by the River Thames which were packed with goods which ignited easily e.g. oil, spirits, straw and hemp.

The fire now became uncontrollable spreading half way across the old London Bridge (luckily a gap caused by a previous fire prevented the fire making it across the river and devastating the south bank as well!)

The fire continued to rage the following day destroying Fleet Street, the Old Bailey and Newgate, reports said that the stones in St Paul's exploded due to the extreme heat. Although there were laws in force forcing the various parishes to provide buckets and ladders in case of fire much of the equipment had been left to rot and was totally inadequate for what they were facing.

By now there was little else to do but to tear down the houses to make gaps or fire breaks so the fire couldn’t get any further. Eventually gun powder had to be used as it was taking to long to pull down the houses by hand.

For 3 more days the fire raged before it finally began to burn itself out near Holborn Bridge but just as people thought the worst was over, the fire flared up again. The Duke of York ordered more buildings to be destroyed to prevent Whitehall from going up in flames, finally it was brought under control.

The fire which lasted 5 days devastated over 400 acres of medieval London, leaving 87 churches (including St Paul’s cathedral) 50 livery halls and 13,200 houses destroyed. Amazingly only 6 people were reported killed by the fire although it is thought this figure isn’t totally accurate.

On the plus side the fire did help destroy the rat population which transmitted the bubonic plague which killed thousands the previous year. However for those that had lost their possessions in the fire they were now reduced to a life of poverty. Some tents were provided around Moorfields and St George’s fields whilst other built what shelters they could.

The fire spread so easily because the houses were made mostly of wood.

Following the great fire the old wooden structures were replaced by brick built buildings and paved the way for the first fire brigades to be employed. Sir Christopher Wren re-built St Paul’s to what we know today in addition to 49 new churches and also the memorial to the fire.