The Great Fire of London: An Illustrated History of the Great Fire of 1666

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Who Was Samuel Pepys? by Paul Harrison – simple biography of Pepy’s life, including a section about his recount of The Great Fire. Fires were common in the crowded wood-built city with its open fireplaces, candles, ovens, and stores of combustibles. A thousand watchmen or "bellmen" who patrolled the streets at night watched for fire as one of their duties. [31] Self-reliant community procedures were in place for dealing with fires, and they were usually effective. "Public-spirited citizens" would be alerted to a dangerous house fire by muffled peals on the church bells, and would congregate hastily to fight the fire. [32] Tuesday, 4 September was the day of greatest destruction. [87] The Duke of York's command post at Temple Bar, where Strand meets Fleet Street, was supposed to stop the fire's westward advance towards the Palace of Whitehall. He hoped that the River Fleet would form a natural firebreak, making a stand with his firemen from the Fleet Bridge and down to the Thames. However, early on Tuesday morning, the flames jumped over the Fleet and outflanked them, driven by the unabated easterly gale, forcing them to run for it. [88] [89] By the 1660s, London was by far the largest city in Britain and the third largest in the Western world, estimated at 300,000 to 400,000 inhabitants. [6] [7] John Evelyn, contrasting London to the Baroque magnificence of Paris in 1659, called it a "wooden, northern, and inartificial congestion of Houses". [8] By "inartificial", Evelyn meant unplanned and makeshift, the result of organic growth and unregulated urban sprawl. [9] London had been a Roman settlement for four centuries and had become progressively more crowded inside its defensive city wall. It had also pushed outwards beyond the wall into extramural settlements such as Shoreditch, Holborn, Cripplegate, Clerkenwell and Southwark, and the Inns of Court. To the West it reached along Strand to the Royal Palace and Abbey at Westminster. [9] [10] Low, Rachael, ed. (2013) [1950]. The History of British Film. Vol.2 (reprinted.). Routledge. p.191.

Pupils could read extracts (or simplified versions) from the diaries of Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn. The conflagration was so universal, and the people so astonished, that from the beginning, I know not by what despondency or fate, they hardly stirred to quench it, so that there was nothing heard or seen but crying out and lamentation, running about like distracted creatures without at all attempting to save even their goods, such a strange consternation there was upon them. [68] Letwin, William (1963). The Origins of Scientific Economics. Routledge. pp.50–51. ISBN 978-0-415-31329-2.The Great Fire of London was a major conflagration that swept through central London from Sunday 2 September to Thursday 6 September 1666, [1] gutting the medieval City of London inside the old Roman city wall, while also extending past the wall to the west. The death toll is generally thought to have been relatively small, [2] [3] although some historians have challenged this belief. [4] The Great Fire of London, depicted by an unknown painter (1675), as it would have appeared from a boat in the vicinity of Tower Wharf on the evening of Tuesday, 4 September 1666. To the left is London Bridge; to the right, the Tower of London. Old St Paul's Cathedral is in the distance, surrounded by the tallest flames. Central London in 1666, with the burnt area shown in pink and outlined in dashes ( Pudding Lane origin [a] marked with a green line) It seemed there was nowhere safe from the fire, so everyone was really worried – including the diary writer Samuel Pepys.

The social and economic problems created by the disaster were overwhelming. Flight from London and settlement elsewhere were strongly encouraged by Charles II, who feared a London rebellion amongst the dispossessed refugees. Various schemes for rebuilding the city were proposed, some of them very radical. After the fire, London was reconstructed on essentially the same medieval street plan, which still exists today. [5] London in the 1660s Rege Sincera (pseudonym), Observations both Historical and Moral upon the Burning of London, September 1666, quoted by Hanson, 80

The questions progress in difficulty, so those based on source 5 are a little harder than those questions based on source 1. It is suggested that teachers/helpers read through the documents together with the class. Have a go at reading the original document first to spot familiar words, but all documents are transcribed and have simplified transcripts. Here are some suggestions for further activities A special Fire Court was set up from February 1667 to December 1668, and again from 1670 to February 1676. The aim of the court, which was authorized by the Fire of London Disputes Act and the Rebuilding of London Act 1670, was to deal with disputes between tenants and landlords and decide who should rebuild, based on ability to pay. Cases were heard and a verdict usually given within a day; without the Fire Court, lengthy legal proceedings would have seriously delayed the rebuilding which was so necessary if London was to recover. [132] [133] Martin, Andrew (2013). Underground Overground: A Passenger's History of the Tube. Profile Books. ISBN 978-1-84668-478-4. The Baker’s Boy and the Great Fire of London by Tom Bradman – join Will Farriner as he struggles to prevent London burning.

By the late 17th century, the City proper—the area bounded by the city wall and the River Thames—was only a part of London, covering some 700 acres (2.8km 2; 1.1sqmi), [11] and home to about 80,000 people, or one quarter of London's inhabitants. The City was surrounded by a ring of inner suburbs where most Londoners lived. [7] The City was then, as now, the commercial heart of the capital, and was the largest market and busiest port in England, dominated by the trading and manufacturing classes. [12] The City was traffic-clogged, polluted, and unhealthy, especially after it was hit by a devastating outbreak of bubonic plague in the Plague Year of 1665. [7] A committee was established to investigate the cause of the Great Fire, chaired by Sir Robert Brooke. It received many submissions alleging a conspiracy of foreigners and Catholics to destroy London. [124] [125] The committee's report was presented to Parliament on 22 January 1667. Versions of the report that appeared in print concluded that Hubert was one of a number of Catholic plotters responsible for starting the fire. [125]Hanson, 77–80. The section "Fire hazards in the City" is based on Hanson, 77–101 unless otherwise indicated. Cooper, Michael (2013). Robert Hooke and the Rebuilding of London. The History Press. p.69. ISBN 978-0-7524-9485-2. SINGS) Something’s burning, something’s burning. Fetch the ketchup, fetch the ketchup… BBQ! BBQ! It’s burnt and it’s crispy.Before ovens were invented all food had to be cooked on fires.

Forrest, Adam (25 January 2016). "How London might have looked: five masterplans after the great fire of 1666". The Guardian. Colsoni, F (1951). Le Guide de Londres (1693) (in French) (Reprinted.). London Topographical Society.

Garrioch, David (2016). "1666 and London's fire history: A re-evaluation". The Historical Journal. 59 (2): 319–338. doi: 10.1017/S0018246X15000382. All the houses in London were so close together, which is a very good thing for escaping…But it also helped the fire to spread. In those days when people wrote diaries, instead of using pens they dipped feather tips in ink and wrote with that instead.