Who were the Quake doctors, how do you cure warts and what was. Samuel Pepys, a civil servant and diarist, wrote of panicked Londoners 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. Other people simply cast their furniture and other goods directly into the Thames. He kept a diary from 1660-1669. Nevertheless, Wrens great work was the erection of St. Pauls Cathedral and the many churches ranged around it as satellites. Fanned by a powerful easterly wind, the bakery fire soon spread to other buildings on Pudding Lane before leaping to nearby Fish Street, where it torched the stables of a hotel called the Star Inn. He wrote in his diary: I also did see a poor cat taken out of a hole in the chimneywith the hair all burned off the body, and yet alive.. Yet the blaze was moving so fast that it repeatedly overran the men as they worked. The Great Fire of London Thus by September 1666, all that was required was a spark. Farriner was a maker of hard tack, the dry but durable biscuits that fed the Kings Navy; hed closed for business on Saturday, September 1, at around 8 or 9 that night, extinguishing the fire in his oven. Embers and wind didnt feel like a satisfying or likely answer, so Londoners started to feel around for someone to blame. The London Gazette's reporting of the disaster says it began 'in a quarter of Town so close built with wooden pitched houses'. HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate. That evening, it roared through the Royal Exchange before engulfing Baynards Castle, a centuries-old fortress. No fire had ever grown as big as the Great Fire of London before. ID no. Yet the greatest fear among Londoners was not fire. But by Monday evening, Londoners began to suspect that this fire was no accident. The official report issued to Parliament rejected much of the testimony as unbelievable one committee member called the allegations very frivolous, and the conclusion declared there was no evidence to prove it to be a general design of wicked agents, Papists or Frenchmen, to burn the city. By John Dunstall. As a last resort gunpowder was used to blow up houses that lay in the path of the fire, and so create an even bigger fire-break, but the sound of the explosions started rumours that a French invasion was taking place. While a Parliamentary investigation later blamed the fire on the hand of God upon us, a great wind and the season so very dry, many Londoners continued to believe it was the work of a foreign-born arsonist. v3.0. At one point in the witch-hunt, a slow-witted Frenchman named Robert Hubert confessed to having firebombed Farriners bakery. According to The Telegraph, though, we do know some of the important details. All Rights Reserved. In fact, when Lord Mayor Sir Thomas Bloodworth saw the flames, he was so unconcerned he went back to bed. Between September 2 and September 6, 1666, a massive inferno ripped through London, reducing much of the city center to a smoldering ruin. Use this lesson to work with original documents which tell the story of the Great Fire of London. In 1666, fires in London were quite common. Video Transcript Rat: How did The Great Fire of London start? As the Museum of London prepares to mark the 350th anniversary of. Although the Great Fire was a catastrophe, it did cleanse the city. London was a busy city in 1666. In 1678, during the Popish Plot, Titus Oates declared that Jesuit priests were to set fire to the city, prompting a Commons resolution declaring that 'the City of London was burnt in the year 1666 by the Papists to introduce arbitrary power and Popery into this Kingdom'. Several people judged to be foreigners were hurt during Wednesdays riot; contemporaries were surprised that no one had been killed. Read about our approach to external linking. This was done with hooked poles, but to no avail as the fire outstripped them! 2023 BBC. When London Burned: 1666's Great Fire | HISTORY The lesson could be expanded to ask pupils to attempt a piece of writing on the fire such as a diary entry. That people believed that the city was under attack, that the fire was the plot of either the Dutch or the French, was logical, not paranoia. His company even had its own fire brigade for those who had bought insurance and policyholders were given plaques for their homes displaying their policy number, so the brigade would know which fires to put out. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Museum of London registered charity number 1139250, Follow us on Twitter for news, views and conversation about London, Join us on Facebook and share your views on current London issues, Browse our YouTube videos of teaching resources, London history, fashion and more, See objects from our collection, snapshots of events and share your visits with us on Instagram, Great Fire only burnt about a quarter of the urban metropolis. Officials were in the strange position of trying to prove he hadnt done what he said he did, but Hubert was adamant and everyone else simply thought he was, to put it in contemporary terms, mad. Theyd even named a particular sin because the fire started at a bakery on Pudding Lane and ended at Pie Corner, opportunistic preachers took the line that Londoners were gluttonous reprobates who needed to repent now. The fire itself was behaving suspiciously; it would be subdued, only to break out somewhere else, as far as 200 yards away. 5621230. Virtually all the civic buildings had been destroyed as well as 13,000 private dwellings, but amazingly only six people had died. A fire could easily get out of control. We asked three Londoners of Indo-Caribbean descent about their family stories as part of the Windrush generation. v3.0, except where otherwise stated, Museum of London: The Great Fire of London 1666, Friends of The National The Great Fire of London - BBC Bitesize An hour later, the ground floor of the building was filled with smoke. There were no access points to get to the water without stopping the flow, and in the panic to try and extinguish the fire the pipes were broken and the water drained away. Name them. Steps were taken to rectify this and make the water easier to access - essentially the beginnings of a fire hydrant system. The exhibition Fire! The Duke of York took control of efforts to stop the fire, with militias summoned from neighbouring counties to help the fight, and stop looting. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. In successive years of the 17th century, London suffered two terrible disasters. People loaded their things onto carts and tried to leave town. Originally black with dirt, the painting was restored in about 1910, revealing this vivid Great Fire scene, The fire raged for five days, making 100,000 people homeless, The buildings in Pudding Lane 'jettied' out into the street, much like Shambles in York, A flat sign for a London tavern after hanging signs were banned, An engraving of the old St Paul's Cathedral, built in 1087, A reconstruction of the north churchyard at St Paul's cathedral before the fire, A stone from the medieval cathedral which survived, but the heat of the fire made it change colour, The footprint of the new St Paul's Cathedral laid over the old, showing how the positioning had been skewed, Wren built the Monument to the Great Fire of London. The fire beaten, London's full attention could turn to the question of blame. When a fire began in Thomas Farriner's bakery in London's Pudding Lane in the early hours of 2 September, no-one could have foreseen the damage it would cause. Read about our approach to external linking. Find History on Facebook (Opens in a new window), Find History on Twitter (Opens in a new window), Find History on YouTube (Opens in a new window), Find History on Instagram (Opens in a new window), Find History on TikTok (Opens in a new window), Guildhall Library & Art Gallery/Heritage Images/Getty Images, https://www.history.com/news/when-london-burned-1666s-great-fire. His daughter, Hanna, then 23, checked the kitchen at around midnight, making sure the oven was cold, then headed to bed. In the immediate aftermath of the fire of 1666, London was a smoking ruin, smoldering with suspicion and religious hatred and xenophobia. This has left us with a false impression that the fire introduced brick to London. Explore 17th century London, fight the fire and help rebuild the city. Cookie Settings, Oldest Known Neanderthal Engravings Were Sealed in a Cave for 57,000 Years, Our Human Relatives Butchered and Ate Each Other 1.45 Million Years Ago, This Ancient Maya City Was Hidden in the Jungle for More Than 1,000 Years, An Exclusive Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Los Alamos Lab Where J. Robert Oppenheimer Created the Atomic Bomb, New Study Identifies Mysterious Boats Painted in Australian Cave. On Sunday, September 2, 1666, the fire began accidentally in the house of the kings baker in Pudding Lane near London Bridge. Fearing that the entire city would burn, King Charles II placed his brother James II, Duke of York, in charge of firefighting efforts. Both the King and the Duke of York were immersed in the battle against the fire, which was contained until late afternoon, when it jumped over the break at Mercers' Hall and began to consume Cheapside, London's widest and wealthiest street. (SINGS) Something's burning, something's burning. Map showing the extent of the damage caused by the Great Fire. Suggested inquiry questions: What caused the Great Fire of London and how did they stop it from happening again? According to writer John Evelyn, the flames melted the churchs lead roof, sending molten metal down the streets in a stream that left the very pavements glowing with a fiery redness.. It was a ghastly disease. 27 Jun 2023 15:59:58 He was brought in for questioning and bizarrely, told authorities that hed set the fire, that he was part of a gang, that it was all a French plot. A scapegoat was needed: the more foreign, the better. The fire was stopped from reaching the south side of the river because a section of the bridge was missing. Flames also ripped through half the buildings and waterwheels on London Bridge but were halted when they reached a gap in construction caused by a previous fire in 1633. Read more. Yet the greatest fear among Londoners was not fire. How many fireplaces and ovens did he have? The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. At 2.00am on Sunday 2nd September his workman smelled smoke and woke the household. The English had just burnt the Dutch port city of West-Terschelling to the ground just two weeks earlier. Not only were houses made of wood in 1666, but so were water pipes, and much of the water supply infrastructure was destroyed. How Did the Great Fire of London Start? - Culture Trip Or maybe it was the Catholics, whod long plotted the downfall of the Protestant nation. Read more. The Earl of Clarendon commented that 'Neither the judges, nor any present at the trial did believe him guilty; but that he was a poor distracted wretch, weary of his life, and chose to part with it'. But the people still wanted someone to blame, so they settled on the Catholics. In much the same way as the Great Fire of London ended the plague, Matt Hancock would happily advocate the burning down of cities at the first sign of a tickly cough. Several factors contributed to the fires slow but unstoppable spread: Many of the residents of Pudding Lane were asleep when the fire began and slow to react, not that they could have done much beyond throw buckets of whatever liquid beer, milk, urine, water was on hand. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. Physician Nicholas Barbon capitalised on the business opportunity, setting up the first insurance company, the Fire Office, in 1667. By this time, just a few months after the fire, the narrative had changed. Everyone knows the Great Fire of London started in a baker's shop in the aptly named Pudding Lane, but was it an accident or a pernicious Papist plot? A monument was erected in Pudding Lane on the spot where the fire began and can be seen today, where it is a reminder of those terrible days in September 1666. Subscribe now for regular news, updates and priority booking for events.Sign up, All content is available under the Open Government Licence The 1667 act stated: "No man whatsoever shall presume to erect any house or building, whether great or small, but of brick or stone.". This was the last major outbreak of the bubonic plague in London, and killed 100,000 Londoners- about 20% of the city's population. But the flames continued relentlessly, devouring Gracechurch Street, Lombard Street, the Royal Exchange, and heading towards the wealthy area of Cheapside. What Disease Did The Fire Of London Stop? - Knowledge WOW Instead, a plan was suggested to blow up houses in the path of the fire, so that there would be an area with no houses to act as fuel for the fire to keep growing. Others tried to get away on boats on the river. Everybody was in a panic. It was also the first cathedral built in a Protestant England and Wren's design reflected the change from Catholicism. Panic began to spread through the city. The people of London who had managed to survive the Great Plague in 1665 must have thought that the year 1666 could only be better, and couldnt possibly be worse! Key stage 1 By Thursday the fire was effectively extinguished, having destroyed 373 acres of the City - from the Tower in the East to Fleet Street and Fetter Lane in the West - and burning around 13,200 houses, 84 churches and 44 company halls. Famous buildings including St Paul's Cathedral, The Royal Exchange, and the Guildhall were completely destroyed, as well as 13,200 houses, and 87 parish churches. September 2, 2016. In those days there were no fire engines or firemen to stop a fire from spreading. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). Read about our approach to external linking. Why are there not many buildings shown in the white middle part of the map? Many of the areas that were worst affected by the plague, such as Whitechapel, Clerkenwell and Southwark, were not destroyed by the fire. The Spanish Ambassador opened his house to all foreigners in fear of their lives - Protestant Dutch as well as Catholic French - as religious bigotry and xenophobia, born in the Reformation and raised by the Gunpowder Plot, surfaced again. Before heading to bed that night, Farriner had made a final inspection of his bakery and raked the spent coals in his ovens, which were still warm from a day of making ships biscuit for King Charles IIs navy. John Stow, in his 1598 Survey of London said since which time [referring to introduction of the rules], thanks be given to God, there hath not happened the like often consuming fires in this city as afore.. The first is Samuel Pepys, who worked for the Navy. His colleagues claimed he was unbalanced and the details of his confession changed as flaws were continually unearthed. Importantly, building materials also changed. Not signed. As the Museum of London prepares to mark the 350th anniversary of the inferno, BBC News looks at how it left a lasting impact on the capital. Archives, Open Government Licence 95.313. On Wednesday morning the fire reached a brick wall - literally - at Middle Temple and at Fetter Lane. It was very crowded. Fire! The fire was a softening of the city ahead of an invasion, or they were already here, whoever they were. Bruce Robinson is a professional journalist who graduated with a first class degree in History from Cambridge University, specialising in English Social, Political and Economic History from 1300 to 1600. Inside their homes, people used candles for light and. How many different jobs can you find on the list? While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Five ways the Great Fire changed London - BBC News The new King Street was built by carving through private land, which opened up access to the Guildhall - one of the few surviving buildings. Some buildings did survive the conflagration, but only a handful can still be seen to this day. The fire raged through the city of London starting on the 2nd of September 1666 and finishing on the 5th of September 1666. As soon as the fire broke out, Dutch and French immigrants were immediately under suspicion; as the fire burned, the English authorities stopped and interrogated foreigners at ports. Whatever the cause, at around 1 a.m., Farriner awoke to find his house in flames. Written by David Long, author of Hidden City: The Secret Alleys, Courts, Thank goodness for the National Health Service! However his vision could not be fulfilled due to a lack of money - landowners still owned the plots where their houses once stood and would have to be paid if a drastic redesign went ahead. One of the most famous disasters in London's history, the Great Fire of London in 1666 devastated the heart of England's capital, destroying more than 13,000 houses and badly damaging landmarks including St Paul's Cathedral and the Royal Exchange. Samuel Pepys, who was a clerk of the Privy Seal, hurried off to inform King Charles II. What losses did Russia suffer in the Wagner revolt? One Frenchman had his house destroyed after the rabble became convinced he was planning to set it on fire. This wind blowing from the east was forcing the fire across the city much quicker than people were expecting, explains Meriel Jeater, curator of the Museum of Londons Fire! In pairs, talk about what people had to do in these jobs. Last updated 2011-03-29. An inferno caused by a forgetful baker, fuelled by a strong wind and indecisive leadership, was blamed on Catholics for over 150 years. On Wednesday the fire slackened; on Thursday it was extinguished, but on the evening of that day the flames again burst forth at The Temple. by Ben Johnson. The 2 September 2016 marks 350 years since the start of the Great Fire of London, which changed the skyline of the capital city forever. A few neighbors formed a bucket brigade and began throwing water on the flames, but most simply stood idle or rushed home to secure their valuables. The Great Fire only grew more horrific on September 3. Was this God's judgment on wicked King Charles II? London was a cramped, overcrowded city lighted by candles and fireplaces. He would later swear that the ovens were extinguished when he retired to his upstairs apartment, but it seems that a smoldering ember escaped and started a fire. The river swarmed with vessels filled with persons carrying away as many of their goods as they were able to save. These objects in our collection show how migration has shaped not only London as a city, but its rich sporting heritage as well. Fireballs were made from animal fat (called tallow), set alight and used to start fires. Your Privacy Rights As the fire raged on, people tried to leave the city and poured down to the River Thames in an attempt to escape by boat. The need to blame somebody was very, very strong, attests Adrian Tinniswood, author of By Permission of Heaven: The Story of the Great Fire. He refused to leave his house on Shoe Lane even though his son & friends begged him to go. The new museum coming in 2026 will be situated at the heart of the capitals historic Smithfield area next to Farringdon. The curator of Fire! Anyone found to be flouting the new rules would be punished by having their house pulled down. Armed mobs eventually took to the streets and pounced on anyone with a foreign accent. Workers took the opportunity to pull down more buildings and widen the break. The 2 September 2016 marks 350 years since the start of the Great Fire of London, which changed the skyline of the capital city forever. The report was given to Parliament on January 22, 1667, but excerpts from the proceedings transcripts were leaked to the public, published in a pamphlet. She was the first to die. BBC - History - London's Burning: The Great Fire In 1685 the Duke of Monmouth, rebelling against the new King, the Catholic James II, accused him of deliberately starting the fire. The Great Fire of London raged for four days in 1666, destroying much of the city and leaving some 100,000 people homeless. The causes of the fire and. The true death toll of the Great Fire of London is not four or six or eight, author Neil Hanson has argued, it is several hundred and quite possibly several thousand times that number.. At the time, diarist John Evelyn wrote of "the lead melting down the streets in a stream and the very pavements of them glowing with a fiery redness". It started at a bakery belonging to the King's baker, Thomas Farriner. Linda Rodriguez McRobbie is an American freelance writer living in London, England. It was not until 1831 that the inscription on the fire's commemorative Monument, blaming 'the treachery and malice of the Popish faction', was removed. (Clue: There are five different ideas in this source.) The streets were narrow and dusty. Elsewhere, a man was attacked when a mob mistook the box of tennis balls he was carrying for combustible fireballs., While Londoners searched for a scapegoat, the flames continued their determined march across the city. Fire! a 26-year-old watchmakers son from Rouen, France, had been stopped at Romford, in Essex, trying to make it to the east coast ports. The sky was red with huge flames from the fire. The disaster affected such a large area that thousands of brick houses had to be built to replace those that had been destroyed. By sunrise, the inferno was burning out of control across the Thames waterfront. Some fled to the hills of Hampstead and Highgate, but Moorfields was the chief refuge of the houseless Londoners. The King himself joined the fire fighters, passing buckets of water to them in an attempt to quell the flames, but the fire raged on. Up to a third of the city was destroyed and more than 70 thousand people were made homeless. ID no. Pie Corner is still marked with a statue of a plump golden boy, formerly known as the Fat Boy, which was intended as a reminder of Londons sinning ways. Buildings that Survived the Great Fire of London. Youre not looking at a population that can distinguish between a Dutchman, a Frenchman, a Spaniard, a Swede. SP 29/171. We bring you the facts. The rumors spread faster than the blaze that engulfed London over five days in September 1666: that the . How many houses in the city were destroyed by the fire? 42.39/142 Map of London in 1666 The fire left many areas that had been devastated by the plague untouched. Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn, the diarists, both gave dramatic, first-hand accounts of the next few days. Find Pepys description of the Great Fire of London on 4th September 1666, famously burying his parmazan cheese. The City of London had sided with the Parliamentarians; six years later, Londoners still didnt entirely trust their monarch. Even if there were a small number of thatched buildings lurking in the densely-packed streets, they were not in significant numbers to be noted as a cause of the Great Fire by 17th-century authors. (Clue: number of hearths and ovens x 1 shilling). Why Hubert said he did it remains unclear, although there is a significant body of literature on why people confess to things they couldnt possibly have done. Drawing of a house made from combustible materials, built before the Great Fire Get HISTORYs most fascinating stories delivered to your inbox three times a week. the smoke could be seen from Oxford, and Londoners had begun to flee to the open spaces of Moorfields and Finsbury Hill. Thames Water collapse: What is Thames Waters area what does it do in London? A Swedish diplomat was nearly hung, saved only by the Duke of York who happened to see him and demand he be let down. The people of London who had managed to survive the Great Plague in 1665 must have thought that the year 1666 could only be better, and couldn't possibly be worse! Pudding lane in London now has a monument to remember the Great Fire. The medieval cathedral, which was more than 500 years old when the fire broke out, had suffered years of neglect and was even used by Oliver Cromwell as a stable for his horses. Inside their homes, people used candles for light and cooked on open fires. Fires were quite a common occurrence in those days and were soon quelled. Many were compelled to come forward with suspicious stories. It looks at the story of the Fire of London through evidence relating to some of the key characters Thomas Farrinor and Charles II. Key stage 2 This is the myth that I hear people talking about most often. The Great Fire of London burned day and night for almost four days in 1666 until only a tiny fraction of the City remained. 2023, A&E Television Networks, LLC. A blacksmith felled a Frenchman in the street with a vicious blow with an iron bar; a witness recalled seeing his innocent blood flowing in a plentiful stream down his ankles. Surprisingly, only nine people died as a result of the fire. The City of Londons Lord Mayor at the time, Sir Thomas Bloodworth, will ever be remembered as the man who declared that the 1666 fire was so small, a woman might piss it out. Uptake was slow, however, and later proclamations repeated this demand several times, such as in October 1607, when King James stated that new brick or stone buildings would both adorne and beautifie his said City, and be lesse subject to danger of fire'. As the fire reached the River Thames, it passed over warehouses full of flammable materials like oil, which quickly set on fire. Great Fire of London begins - HISTORY A violent east wind encouraged the flames, which raged during the whole of Monday and part of Tuesday. Not for the last time would a nation honour its brave fire fighters. ZMAP 4/18, Source 5 provides evidence of how Charles hoped to improve the city and prevent such a calamity happening again. The fire finally stopped on the morning of September 6. The fire still spread, helped by a strong wind from the east. The fateful spark in the Great Fire came early on Sunday, September 2, at the Pudding Lane bakery of Thomas Farriner. In the early hours of 2 September 1666, a fire started in London. Read about our approach to external linking. In a city where open flames were used for heat and light, fires were common. Whats even more confusing is that by the time the testimonies were leaked, someone had already confessed to and been hung for the crime of starting the fire. BBC 2014 The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Have a go at reading the original document first to spot familiar words, but all documents are transcribed and have simplified transcripts. exhibition (May 2016 - April 2017) aimed to tackle. Corrections? He declared that the fire had not been started by foreign powers or subversives, but had been an act of God. Buildings were largely made of wood; fires were common. Ask your teacher for a map of London today. Nine scenes from the 1665 plague that ravaged London. A hot summer had left London parched, its timber and plaster buildings like well-dried kindling. The Navy used gunpowder to destroy the buildings and by the next morning, the fire had been stopped. This, combined with the dry, dusty air, was known to be particularly effective in carrying plague. why so many soldiers survived the trenches. Homes didn't have electricity, so real flames were used for lighting, cooking, and heating homes. Five plans were submitted to rebuild the City of London, including one from Wren, who envisaged wide streets branching out from a huge memorial to the fire. Firefighting was much more basic in 1666, and people didn't know nearly as much about stopping fires as we do today. The Duke organized fire brigades that used heavy chains, ropes and grapples to pull down houses and create firebreaks to stop the infernos advance.
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