The Great Fire of London

• The summer of 1666 was long and hot.

• By the time September came, London’s medieval houses,
which were made out of wood and straw, were tinder-box dry.

• The king’s baker, Thomas Farynor, lived not far from London
Bridge on Pudding Lane.
• On 2 September, he left his ovens on overnight cooking
biscuits for the Royal Navy, and awoke to the smell of
burning.
• Thomas escaped by jumping out of his window, but his
bakery was soon engulfed in flames.
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 • Thanks to a warm wind, the fire quickly spread to the
riverside. Here, the warehouses, of the London docks
were full of flammable goods such as tallow, oil,
timber and coal. Once these caught light, the fire was
unstoppable.
• Soon, the flames were raging through London so
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Stopping the fire
• It was left to the Mayor of London, Sir Thomas
Bloodworth, to work out how to stop the fire.
• During the 17th century, there were no firemen or fire
engines, and only the most basic water pumps and hoses.
• Teams of people lined up alongside the Thames passing
leather buckets of water towards the flames.
• Even Charles II and his brother James took part in the fight.
• However, it made little difference and for three days,
London was ablaze.
• The fire was so bright that at night an orange glow could be
seen on the horizon 50 miles away in Oxford.

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 • The only solution to the fire was to create ‘firebreaks’.
• To do this, rows of houses had to be pulled down with fire hooks or blown up with
gunpowder, to create a barrier over which the fire could not pass. Many Londoners
objected to having their houses or businesses, which had so far survived the flames,
deliberately destroyed. However, the King overruled their objections, and the fire
finally stopped on 7 September.

• In all, the Great Fire claimed 13,200 houses, along with 87 churches, 44 merchant guildhalls, and all of the commercial buildings of the City of London. The
medieval heart of England’s capital was completely destroyed.

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Rebuilding London

• 100,000 Londoners were left homeless by the

fire and forced to live in tents outside the city.
• There was much speculation about how the fire
began.
• Many rumors spread about Catholic plotters.
• A French watchmaker named Robert Hubert
even admitted to starting the fire on the orders
of the Pope, and was executed.
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 • After the fire, Charles II set about the task of rebuilding London.

• To prevent another fire, it was firmly stated that buildings should only
be constructed from brick or stone. The most talented architect of the
day, Sir Christopher Wren, was tasked with designing a gleaming new
London with wide streets, sewers and stone houses. At the centre of
this new city was Wren’s masterpiece: St Paul’s Cathedral.

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Pepy’s diary
• Much can be learnt about life during the Restoration from a
government official who worked in the Royal Navy named Samuel
Pepys, who kept a wonderfully detailed diary from 1660 to 1669. It
provides us with a unique insight into 17 th century life.

• Pepys was a sociable fellow, with connections at the royal court. He

chatted to King Charles II on board the Royal Charles, the ship that
brought him from Holland to England in 1660, and recorded: “…it
made me weep to hear the stories he told of his difficulties he
passed through”.

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 • Pepys was in London during the Great Fire, and took care to bury his
most prized possession in his garden: a block of Parmesan cheese.

• On 3 September, he described seeing the crowds of people flee the city:

“Lord! To see how the streets and the highways are crowded with people
running and riding, and getting of carts at any rate to fetch away
things. I am eased at my heart to have my treasure so well secured.”

• The next day he wrote, “Only now and then walking into the garden,
and saw how horridly the sky looks, all on a fire in the night.”

• Pepys recorded how, as he walked towards central London during the fire,
the road felt hot beneath his feet.
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