What Was The Great Fire Of London, And How Did It Start?

The Great Fire of London as depicted by an unknown painter in 1675.

The Great Fire of London started during the early hours of September 2, 1666, in a bakery on Pudding Lane. This incident quickly escalated into a fire that would change the city of London forever. Over the course of four days, the fire rapidly spread through the city, and it destroyed much of medieval London.

The Beginning of the Fire

It was around 1 a.m. when the fire broke out. It happened after Thomas Farriner, the baker, went home from work. A tiny spark from the oven of the bakery went through the air and set some pieces of wood in the vicinity on fire. Eventually, this small fire grew and ended up consuming his bakery as well. Since this bakery and the other buildings were packed tightly together, the fire had no problem spreading, and in just a matter of hours, a large chunk of the area was burning. Firefighting in 1666 was not effective as it is today, and modern technology like fire engines and fire hydrants did not exist. Thus, people had to resort to buckets of water and manual labor to try and put out the fire. They also attempted to use fire hooks to pull down burning material and stop the fire from spreading, but the winds were too strong to stop the fire from leaping from one building to the next.

The Spread of the Fire

By the morning of September 2, the fire had already consumed a large number of houses. It moved towards the Thames, where it found more fuel in warehouses, especially those that were full of goods like oil, wine, and coal. The wind was blowing from the east on that day, which pushed the flames further into the city. By the second day, the fire had reached London Bridge and threatened to cross to the Southwark side. As the fire grew, more and more people began to panic.

Countless residents of London ran away from the city and took with them what they could carry. Those who remained behind tried to save their houses or belongings. The narrow, winding streets only made it hard for people to escape or for help to reach them. The fire kept going on and swept across the city, touching important landmarks like St. Paul's Cathedral, which eventually fell into the raging fire.

The Efforts to Stop the Fire

King Charles II himself headed efforts to try and stop the fire. He ordered the making of firebreaks by demolishing buildings and vegetation in the path of the fire. This was done both with explosives and by hand. These efforts were not immediately successful, however, as the fire had gained too much ground. But, by the third day, the wind had began to die down, which helped to slow the spread of the fire.

Finally, on September 5, the winds died down, and the people were able to extinguish what remained of the fire. Even though the fire itself was gone at last, it had left behind a scene of devastation: over 13,200 houses, 87 parish churches, and many public buildings—the Guildhall and St. Paul's Cathedral among them—reduced to ashes. Precise figures of the number of dead are impossible to determine, but official records say that only six to eight people actually died from the fire. However, many historians believe that the actual number was much higher than this.

The economic effect was huge, and many Londoners lost their homes and livelihoods. The government was tasked with rebuilding the city, and this involved quite a few changes in urban planning. Among the plans that were proposed for a new London were those of Sir Christopher Wren, but his grand designs were not taken to their full potential. Instead, rebuilding focused on making the city more resistant to future fires, with wider streets, stone houses, and restrictions on building materials.

Rebuilding and Changes

The extent of the damage done by the fire (shaded in red).

Rebuilding London did not happen overnight; it took years. New laws were passed, such as the Rebuilding of London Act of 1667, which put order into how the buildings should be built so that the chances of such disasters happening in the future were lower. As stated before, the streets were widened and houses were rebuilt with stone or brick rather than wood.

The Great Fire also caused a cultural shift. A lot of parish churches were destroyed. So, new ones needed to be built, many of which were designed by Wren, and it gave London a new architectural character. The fire even influenced literature, with writers like Samuel Pepys recording the event in his famous diary, which provides a lot of historical information on this time period.

Legacy

This event is considered a turning point in the history of London because it not only changed the physical landscape but also restructured society and the way London was governed.

This fire brought improvements in fire-fighting measures, urban planning, and even how insurance works, as the concept of fire insurance really began to take hold after this incident. Today, the Monument to the Great Fire of London stands as a reminder of this event, and it is located near where the fire started. In conclusion, the Great Fire of London was not just a disaster but a catalyst for change. It forced the city to rethink its construction, its laws, and its future, shaping London into the city we know it as today.