Report - Great Fire of London

[One of the various forces that weakened England during the second Anglo-Dutch War; report written English 2001; posted 7 January 2006]

In 1212, a large fire consumed part of London. This fire killed about three thousand people and was known as the Great Fire of London - until September 2, 1666, that is.

Thomas Farrinor, the baker for King Charles II, went to bed around eleven o’clock on Saturday, September 1, 1666, accidentally leaving the embers in his oven burning. He was awakened three hours later by his assistant who had risen to find the house full of smoke. Farrinor, his family, his assistant, and one servant managed to crawl over the roof to safety. The maid, who was too frightened to climb over the roof, stayed in the house and became the first victim of the fire.

The houses of London were half-timbered and pitch-covered. Many even had thatched roofs. This fact, along with the prevailing easterly wind that night, turned London into a pile of dry kindling doused with gasoline, just waiting for the match. Farrinor’s carelessness provided that match. London went up in flames like a pine tree.

Sparks from Farrinor’s burning roof fell to land in the straw and hay in the yard of the Star Inn on Fish Street Hill. From there it consumed St. Margaret’s Church, and then crossed into Thames Street.

Thames Street was lined with warehouses and wharves, which were filled with extremely flammable materials such as oil, tallow, coal, hemp, straw, spirits, and much more. By now the fire was too fierce to be battled by the crude hand-operated devices available.

The following is an excerpt for the diary of Samuel Pepys-
So I rode down to the waterside, … and there saw a lamentable fire…Everybody endeavouring to remove their goods, and flinging into the river or bringing them into the lighters that lay off; poor people staying in their houses as long as till the very fire touched them, and then running into boats, or clambering from one pair of stairs by the waterside to another. And among other things, the poor pigeons, I perceive, were loth to leave their houses, but hovered about the windows and balconies, till they some of them burned their wings and fell down.

Seven hours after the fire started, at eight thirty in the morning, the flames were already halfway across the old London Bridge. Only a gap left by a fire in 1633 prevented the flames from crossing and starting fires in Southwark on the south side of the river.

Various statutes had been enforced, obligating people to provide buckets, axes, ladders, squirts, and fire hooks. However, many of these were rotted through neglect. Water supplies, aside from the river, were rare.

For some time, Lord Mayor Bludworth would not allow houses to be pulled down. “Who will pay for the rebuilding?” he asked. Samuel Pepys returned with the Royal Command that the houses were to be pulled down. The ‘trained bands’ who were called out to help started their demolition process too close to the fire, however. They didn’t have enough time to clear the debris before the fire overtook them.

As the fire raged, so did the efforts to contain it. Gunpowder was used to blow up houses, usually with success. The fire raged for three more days, destroying everything in its path. Finally, it was brought to a halt at Temple Church, near Holborn Bridge.

Then, just as panic from the previous three days started to wane, the fire sparked back to life and started towards Westminster. It never got there. The Duke of York ordered the Paper House blown up, thus preventing the fire from regaining a foothold.

Before the fire was stopped, it destroyed nearly four fifths of the city. That eighty percent included about thirteen thousand, two hundred (13,200) houses, eighty-seven churches, six chapels, the Royal Exchange, the Custom House, the Jail at Newgate, three City gates, fifty-two Company (Guild) Halls, four bridges, and more. All of this was on four hundred and thirty-six acres of land. Three hundred and seventy-three of these acres were inside the City gates, and the remaining sixty-three acres were outside the gates.

Amazingly, the fire only claimed a few human lives. Reports varied between six and sixteen deaths.

The fire probably saved a considerable number more lives than it took. It killed off most of the black rats which carried the fleas that carried the Black Plague. The Black Plague killed about seventeen thousand, four hundred and forty (17,440) people out of a population of ninety-three thousand (93,000) since 1664.

The fire also pushed people into using different materials for building. Before the fire, houses were built close together and made of wood sealed with pitch. After the fire, people started building things out of brick and stone. The fire changed the face of London forever.

Sir Christopher Wren proposed plans to the King to build houses farther apart, opening the city up to light and air. Though he liked it, the King realized that the scheme would take too long and be too expensive, and rejected Wren’s idea. Instead, he appointed Wren to rebuild the city’s churches. Wren designed the St. Paul’s Cathedral that we see today.

Christopher Wren was also responsible for building the Monument, a memorial of the fire. The Monument took eight years to complete, starting in 1671 and ending in 1679. The slender, two hundred and two feet high Monument stands on Monument Street. It is situated exactly two hundred and two feet from the site of Thomas Farrinor’s house, where the fire began.
Crowning the Monument is a simple bowl with flames shooting from the top. The original plans included a statue of King Charles II on top, but he rejected the honor, fearing that the people of London would then associate him with the fire. At the bottom of the Monument is a mural showing the story of the fire.

In 1986, the Baker’s Company issued an apology for the fire - an apology that came three hundred and twenty years late.

Sources
1. “Great Fire”, The London Gazette, London, England, Tho. Newcomb, 1666, page 3
2. “In the Beginning…The Great Fire of London-1666.” <http://www.angliacampus.com/education/fire/london/history/greatfir.htm>
(29 January, 2001)
3. “The Great Fire of London.”
<http://www.britainexpress.com/History/great_fire.htm>
(29 January, 2001)
4. “The Great Fire of London.”
<http://www.jmccall.demon.co.uk/history/page2.htm>
(29 January, 2001)
5. “London (England)”, Multimedia Encyclopedia, Software Toolworks, 1992
6. Weiss, David Ansel, The Great Fire of London, New York, New York, Crown Publishers, 1968, pages 17-23