The Great Fire of London (1666)

Unknown painter,

The Museum of London

• wooden houses, covered with tar• narrow streets• insanitary and overcrowded• hot summer• no water resources• neighbourhood bucket brigades

London in 1666

Samuel Pepys

• worked for the British government• coded diary (1660 - 1669)• wrote about the Great Plague of 1665 and

the Great Fire of London

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/jan/06/samuel-pepys-diary-350-years

• “The churches, houses, and all on fire and flaming at once; and a horrid noise the flames made, and the cracking of houses at their ruins.”

• “And among other things, the poor pigeons, I perceive, were loth to leave their houses, but hovered about the windows and balconys till they were, some of them burned, their wings, and fell down.”

• 2nd September 1666 (Sunday)

• Thomas Farriner

• Pudding Lane

The Fire

http://shapersofthe80s.com/tag/great-fire-of-london/

Day 1 (Sunday)

•“A woman could piss it out”

• strong wind

• by 7 am – 300 houses

• demolishing the houses

Day 2 (Monday)

• 8 fire posts around the fire were established

• the fire was 300 meters from the Tower (ammunition)

• the Londoners started to flee• smoke could be seen from Oxford

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Great_fire_spread.png

Day 3 (Tuesday)

• the most destructive day • St Paul’s Cathedral burnt down

http://unusualhistoricals.blogspot.pt/2010/05/disasters-great-fire-of-london.html

Day 4 (Wednesday)

• no wind

• fires in the West part of London extinguished

• by Thursday the fire was out

Aftermath

• 80% of city destroyed • 13 200 houses• 89 churches• 44 company halls• officially 4 people died• 100 000 people homeless• BUT:

– the area around Fleet Street burnt down

• the Londoners blamed the foreigners

• The Parliamentary Investigation

• Robert Hubert

• 6 commissioners

• Sir Christopher Wren

• by 1671, 9000 houses and public buildings were built

Reconstruction

Sir Christopher Wren

• 52 churches• 36 company halls• 2 hospitals• the Royal Exchange• the Theatre Royal• St Paul’s Cathedral

The Monument

• 1670• 62 meters high• Sir Christopher Wren• “the most dreadful Burning of this City;

begun and carried on by the treachery and malice of the Popish faction”

• “the hand of God, a great wind, and a very dry season”

Links:• http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/civil_war_revolution/g

reat_fire_01.shtml• http://www.luminarium.org/encyclopedia/greatfire.htm• http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/great-fire-of-lo

ndon-begins• http://www.pepys.info/fire.html• http://www.themonument.info/• http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/londonfire.htm• http://englishhistoryauthors.blogspot.pt/2013/05/

changing-face-of-london-great-fire-of.html• http://www.architecture.com/

LibraryDrawingsAndPhotographs/OnlineWorkshops/UrbanAdventures/01Wren.aspx#.U1WUdVV5Pap

• http://www.pepys.info/1666/london_gazette.html

Thank you for your attention!