Great Fire Of London

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Detail of a painting from 1666 of the Great Fire of London. The painting was done by an unknown artist. The artist drew the fire as it would have appeared on the evening of Tuesday, 4 September from a boat in the vicinity of Tower Wharf. The Tower of London is on the right and London Bridge on the left, with St. Paul's Cathedral in the distance, surrounded by the tallest flames.

The Great Fire of London was a fire inside the city walls of medieval London. It burnt form Sunday September 2, 1666 to Wednesday September 5, 1666.^[1] It threatened, the aristocratic district of Westminster (the modern West End), Charles II's Palace of Whitehall, and most of the suburban slums. However, it did not reach these dstricts.^[2] It consumed 13,200 houses, 87 parish churches, St. Paul's Cathedral, and most of the buildings of the City authorities. It is estimated that it destroyed the homes of 70,000 of the City's 80,000 inhabitants.^[3] The death toll from the fire is unknown, although approximately 87 children were destroyed in this fire. Many people think it must have been a small amount of people, as only a few verified deaths were recorded. This reasoning has recently been challenged because the deaths of poor and middle-class people were not recorded anywhere. The heat of the fire may also have cremated many victims, leaving no recognisable remains.

The fire started at the bakery of Thomas Farriner (or Farynor) in Pudding Lane shortly after midnight on Sunday, 2 September. It spread rapidly. The use of the major firefighting technique of the time, the creation of firebreaks by means of demolition, was critically delayed. This was because of the indecisiveness of the Lord Mayor of London, Sir Thomas Bloodworth. By the time large-scale demolitions were ordered on Sunday night, the wind had already fanned the bakery fire into a firestorm which defeated such measures. The fire pushed north on Monday into the heart of the City. Order in the streets broke down as rumours arose of suspicious foreigners setting fires. The fears of the homeless focused on the French and Dutch, England's enemies in the Second Anglo-Dutch War. This war was fought at the time; these substantial immigrant groups became victims of lynchings and street violence. On Tuesday, the fire spread over most of the City. It destroyed St. Paul's Cathedral and lept the River Fleet. Then it threatened Charles II's court at Whitehall. Coordinated firefighting efforts were simultaneously mobilising. The battle to extinguish the fire is considered to have been won by two factors: the strong east winds died down, and the Tower of London garrison used gunpowder to create effective firebreaks to halt further spread eastward.

The social and economic problems created by the disaster were very big. Evacuation from London and settlement elsewhere were strongly encouraged by Charles II, who feared a London rebellion amongst the dispossessed refugees. Despite numerous radical proposals, London was reconstructed on essentially the same street plan used before the fire.^[4]

[edit] References

↑ All dates are given according to the New Style.
↑ Porter, 69–80.
↑ Tinniswood, 4, 101.
↑ Reddaway, 27.

Evelyn, John (1854). Diary and Correspondence of John Evelyn, F.R.S., London: Hursst and Blackett. URL accessed 2006-11-05. Also in text version:Evelyn, John (1857). Diary and Correspondence of John Evelyn, F.R.S.. URL accessed 2007-01-01.

Hanson, Neil (2001). The Dreadful Judgement: The True Story of the Great Fire of London, New York: Doubleday. For a review of Hanson's work, see Lauzanne, Alain. Revue pluridisciplinaire du monde anglophone (English). Cercles. Retrieved on 2006-10-12.
Morgan (2000). Oxford Illustrated History of Britain, Oxford: Oxford.
Pepys, Samuel (1995). Robert Latham and William Matthews (eds.) The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Vol. 7, London: Harper Collins. ISBN 0-00-499027-7. First published between 1970 and 1983, by Bell & Hyman, London. Quotations from and details involving Pepys are taken from this standard, and copyright, edition. All web versions of the diaries are based on public domain 19th-century editions and unfortunately contain many errors, as the shorthand in which Pepy's diaries were originally written was not accurately transcribed until the pioneering work of Latham and Matthews.
Porter, Roy (1994). London: A Social History, Cambridge: Harvard.
Reddaway, T. F. (1940). The Rebuilding of London after the Great Fire, London: Jonathan Cape.
Robinson, Bruce. London: Brighter Lights, Bigger City, BBC. URL accessed 2006-08-12.
Sheppard, Francis (1998). London: A History, Oxford: Oxford.
Tinniswood, Adrian (2003). By Permission of Heaven: The Story of the Great Fire of London, London: Jonathan Cape.