Short after midnight on the 2nd September 1666, a fire started in Pudding Lane in the City of London. The fire spread throughout the city and lasted till Thursday the 6th September. A monument to the Great Fire of London was erected near the starting point in 1677.
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| Monument to Great Fire of London |
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| Monument to Great Fire of London |
London in 1666 had expanded beyond the Roman city walls and in the main was unplanned tightly packed buildings that had developed as the result of growing to become the largest city in Britain. The centre of the city, as now, was the financial and commercial centre.
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| London 1660s |
The Great Fire of London was started in a bakery in Pudding Lane shortly after midnight on Sunday 2 September.
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| Pudding Lane Bakery |
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| Pudding Lane Bakery marker plaque |
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| Pudding Lane February 2023 |
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| Great Fire of London |
The fire rapidly due to the wooden buildings, many in poor repair, fuelling the fire and strong winds which turned the conflagration into a fire storm. The situation was not helped by the indecisiveness of the Lord Mayor, Sir Thomas Bloodworth, who delayed the order to create fire breaks by demolishing buildings until Sunday night. On the Monday the fire pushed north into the heart of the City. |
| Great Fire of London London City burns |
On Tuesday the fire continued. It was hoped St Pauls Cathedral with it's thick stone walls and the wide empty surrounding plaza forming a natural firebreak would survive. It was undergoing repairs at the time and was surrounded by wooden scaffolding which caught fire on Tuesday night. The heat of the fire began to melt the lead roof, and the molten metal flowed into the crypt which was full of printers and book sellers stocks placed there for safety. The stock caught fire and the the effects of the fire turned St Pauls into a ruin.  |
| St Pauls Cathedral burns |
The fire was contained in the north by the Roman city walls. To the west it had leapt the River Fleet and was threating toward Whitehall, whilst in the east it was approaching the Tower of London. On Wednesday the winds dropped and fire breaks created by troops stationed in the garrisoned Tower of London using gunpowder prevented further spreading.
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| Great Fire of London |
It is estimated that the fire destroyed 13,500 houses, 87 parish churches, 44 Company Halls, the Royal Exchange, the Custom House, St Paul's Cathedral, Bridewell Prison, the General Letter Office, and the three western city gates—Ludgate, Newgate, and Aldersgate.
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