The Great Fire of London rages
The terrifying inferno destroys four-fifths of the city
Legend has it that when the lord mayor of .ondon, 5ir 6homas Bloodworth, was roused from his sleep on 2 5eptember to be told his city was on re, he retorted p2ish # woman might piss it out q
6hat morning, a re had broken out in 6homas (arriner’s bakery on 2udding .ane, near London Bridge. Blazes were fairly common at that time, but now a long, hot, dry summer had turned the city’s largely wooden infrastructure into a tinderbox.
Within hours, 300 houses had been consumed, and the re spread rapidly, whipped up by a strong easterly wind. In London’s narrow warren of streets, lined with combustible timber-framed structures, the ʚames leapt easily from building to building. 'fforts to control the re using buckets of water soon failed, compelling many people to ʚee onto the riXer 6hames or out to *ampstead and /oor elds.
By 3 September, the city’s residents were in despair as the conʚagration continued to spread. Rumours proliferated amid the ensuing chaos, and xenophobic attacks were carried out against Dutch and French residents wrongly suspected of arson. 6hat night brought no respite the re began to creep eastwards, threatening to ignite the gunpowder stores at the 6ower of .ondon.
Diarist Samuel Pepys was overcome by his city’s destruction, writing that “it made me weep to see it”. He arrived at the Palace of Whitehall to update Charles II, whereupon the king ordered the demolition of houses in the re’s path to create rebreaks. ;et eXen that proXed to be in Xain the conʚagration oXerwhelmed all efforts to contain it.
On 4 September, half of London was burning as the king and his brother, the Duke of ;ork, joined in the re ghting efforts. 6hat evening the city’s cathedral, St Paul’s, was engulfed by ʚames. #s its roof melted and ʚowed off in a torrent of molten lead, the imposing )othic edi ce collapsed.
It wasn’t until 5eptember, the fth day of the bla\e, that the ʚames were brought under control. ,ust one fth of .ondon remained unscathed. More than 87 parish churches, 13,000 houses and numerous civic buildings had been destroyed, rendering hundreds of thousands of Londoners homeless. Remarkably, the deaths of just six people were recorded.
One positive outcome emerged, in the long term, at least: the re had ra\ed the city’s most overcrowded, disease-ridden quarters. Christopher Wren set out ambitious plans to rebuild London; his masterpiece, the new St Paul’s Cathedral, stands today as a testament to the city’s resilience.
Meanwhile, the Monument was erected in 2udding .ane to commemorate the re s a tribute to the hellish days of September 1666.