The new lord mayor, Sir William Bolton, for whom everyone had high hopes after Bloodworth, was in charge of administrating the 12,000 raised. Surprisingly, only six official deaths were recordedbut the actual figure is likely to be much higher. In a world lit only by fire, people were always setting fire to their houses, Tinniswood says of England in the mid-1600s. In 17th century London, not only were buildings made from wood and straw, but they stood very close together, making it easy for fire to spread. Now the wheels are back on weve realised its really difficult to turn corners. The default fire-fighting technique was demolition, but faced with that prospect, the Lord Mayor demurred. Five days after a single small house fire began in the bakery on Pudding Lane, the City of London stood in ruins, with most of the population homeless and almost incalculable damage done to Londons property, trade, and above all, people. Here we recount what is known about the destruction wreaked by the fire, and the immediate aftermath. The Great Fire of London raged for four days in 1666, destroying much of the city and leaving some 100,000 people homeless. Almost 300 houses, she said, had burned down already; now the fire had reached Fish Street, near London Bridge. Within the area of the devastation a new city of brick and occasionally stone arose, but around it a larger area remained timber-framed for generations to come. Indeed, only a few years after the blaze, Edward Chamberlayne claimed that not above six or eight persons were burnt, and an Essex vicar named Ralph Josselin noted that few perished in the flames. There was undoubtedly enough warning to ensure that a large proportion of Londons population vacated hazardous areas, but for every sick person helped out of their house, there must have been others with no one to aid them. Many landlords required tenants to continue paying for homes that didnt exist anymore some even claimed tenants should rebuild their homes at their own expense. The trial was recorded in the London Gazette, which revealed that the plotters purportedly had the support of a conspirator in Holland and had planned to execute their Hellish design on the anniversary of Oliver Cromwells death, 3 September. The Museum of London holds an incomplete fire engine from around 1678. BBC 2014 The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. The fire at Grenfell Tower has called attention to widespread fire safety problems in buildings across England, with thousands of apartments at risk in what has been called a cladding scandal.. Streets were made wider, and buildings were made from brick or stone (rather than wood), with better access to water. Dr John Schofield has been an archaeologist specialising in towns - especially London - since he joined the Museum of London in 1974. In one of Pepyss proudest moments, he was called to court to describe the fire to the Kingand the Duke of York. Save 70% on the shop price when you subscribe today - Get 13 issues for just $49.99 + FREE access to HistoryExtra.com, Your guide to the Great Fire of London, plus 10 surprising facts, The Lord Mayor, Sir Thomas Bloodworth, took one look at the blaze, declared 'a woman might piss it out', and went back to sleep. This sudden contrast took generations to erase. Alarmed, Pepys pulled on his clothes and walked to the Tower, where he went up to get a better view. Those with more than a passing knowledge of the crucial facts might be aware of accounts of King Charles II fighting the fire alongside his brother, the Duke of York; of Samuel Pepys taking pains to bury his prized parmesan cheese; or of the French watchmaker Robert Hubert meeting his death at Tyburn after (falsely) claiming to have started the blaze. The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user. And got my bags of gold into my office, ready to carry away, and my chief papers of accounts.. Be sure to check if your parent or guardian is okay with this first. Wren was very fussy about his materials, ensuring the great public buildings of the time, including St Pauls Cathedral, were built to last. Make Tudor houses. In April 1666, a group of parliamentarians led by John Rathbone and William Saunders were tried at the Old Bailey and found guilty of conspiring to assassinate Charles II, overthrow government and fire the City of London, letting down the portcullis to keep out assistance. Its not clear when exactly people began to say that the fire ended the plague, since people didnt seem to believe this at the time. For about two hours after the fire was reported, firefighters advised residents to stay in their apartments. The cladding, which has been used in several other buildings across England, is not allowed on high-rise buildings in many countries, including the United States, because of fire danger. Video, The endangered languages that are fighting back, Sacked teacher vows to defend 20 years of absence, South Koreans become a year younger under new law, French police kill teen who refused traffic stop, Pompeii archaeologists discover 'pizza' painting, Illegal trade in AI child sex abuse images exposed. Evelyn moved with extraordinary difficulty, clambring over mountaines of yet smoking rubbish, & frequently mistaking where I was, the ground under my feete so hott, as made me not onely Sweate, but even burnt the soles of my shoes. Consolidate pupils' learning about The Great Fire of London with these three catchy songs from our Music pages. We discover what happened after The Fire was finally put out - how London was rebuilt and how we remember The Fire today. 2023, A&E Television Networks, LLC. Please consider upgrading your browser software or enabling style sheets (CSS) if you are able to do so. Within the area of the fire no buildings survived intact above ground, though churches of stone, and especially their towers, were only partly destroyed and now stood as gaunt and smoking ruins. Then, in October 1666, King Charles and the City appointed Commissioners, including Wren, to regulate the rebuilding. Wren, of course, was principally concerned with St Paul's Cathedral. In 1681, a plaque blaming papists for the fire was erected in Pudding Lane. burn to show how The Fire spread. Only a small number of people died but By Monday evening, 300 houses had burned the final toll would top 13,000. His story was shaky he claimed he started the fire in Westminster, despite the flames never even reaching that far, then changed his tale to Pudding Lane, the fires base. 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. Sensible, straight-sided houses were to be built in brick and stone only, with no overhanging jetties. Rebuilding, with fire-resistant bricks and mortar, had begun, but the mental scars would be harder to erase. When London Faced a PandemicAnd a Devastating Fire So although London continued to report plague victims until 1679, the major outbreak was mostly over by September 2, 1666, the night a baker named Thomas Farriner unwittingly started the Great Fire of London. Pepys described him as a silly man. A few weeks before the fire, one Mr Light claimed to have been asked by a zealous Papist: You expect great things in 66, and think that Rome will be destroyed, but what if it be London?. It was believed that the blaze had been caused by a candle falling into some straw. In all, Wren oversaw the rebuilding of 52 churches, 36 company halls, and the memorial to the great fire, Monument. It wasnt until we put it together again that we could see how it would work, explains Meriel Jeater, curator of the Museum of Londons Fire! As part of their Fire! More than 13,000 houses, 87 churches and 44 livery halls were destroyed, the historic city gates were wrecked, and the Guildhall, St Pauls Cathedral, Baynards Castle and the Royal Exchange were severely damaged in some cases, beyond repair. Whats more, parish records hint at a far greater death toll than previously supposed. The Fire blazed for four days but by the fifth day had mostly been extinguished. Probably due to the demolition-policy, the fire stopped at Pye (Pie) Corner on the west of the city, on 5 September, but London was decimated. A sketch from 1673 by Thomas Wyck shows the extent of the ruins of St Pauls Cathedral that remained. Most burned. Some of the designs may be by Robert Hooke (St Martin Ludgate), but it is clear that Wren only had a general overall control of all these projects. The endangered languages that are fighting back. efforts to create a city with fine new public buildings and spaces did not go much further. Another resident, Rania Ibrahim, recorded a video and posted it online as she tired to escape the fire. But the families of the 72 who died find accountability slow in coming. The long, dry summer that year didnt help the situation much either. Pepys wasnt the only one. Whats more, the burning lasted months, not days: Pepys recorded that cellars were still burning in March of the following year. Each parish church had to keep equipment in the event of a fire - including buckets made of leather and fire hooks, which were used to pull down burning buildings. No landowner was prepared to see his few square feet consumed into a giant communal grid. Likewise, the parish records of St Boltoph Bishopsgate show that the mean age at the time of death rose by an astonishing 12 years, from 18.3 to 31.3. With carts and boats suddenly at a premium, it didnt take long for country folk to realise they could charge extortionate rates to desperate refugees. This article was first published in the September 2016 issue of BBC History Revealed. Strict building regulations dictated construction. The uncomfortable fact is historians dont really know why the Great Plague ended. A spark from a bakers oven grew into an all-consuming monster that lasted four days. Thomas Vincent, a Puritan preacher, published Gods Terrible Voice in the City by Plague and Fire in 1667, voicing what many secretly suspected that God punished them for their sinful ways, not least those of Charles IIs extravagant court. All Rights Reserved. In the long run, it was the making of modern London: without the fire, there would be no St Pauls and far fewer Wren churches. There must have been more. The true figure of deaths during the Great Fire of London may never be known. In February 1666, King Charles II returned to London, signaling a belief that the city had become reasonably safe, says Christoph Heyl, the chair of British literature and culture at the University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany, who has written about the Great Fire. The mapmakers even guessed at the future shape of St Paul's Cathedral, even though only the foundation of the east end had been laid. The immediate aftermath was homelessness and ruin for thousands, but the effects can still be seen today. So the creation of the Empire owes something to the Great Fire of 1666. Back then, there was no fire brigade in London, which meant it was up to local soldiers as well as regular Londoners to fight the fire. Get uplifting news, exclusive offers, inspiring stories and activities to help you and your family Read more. WebWhat happened after The Great Fire of London? The son of a rector, he had grown to prominence as a professor of astronomy, first at Londons Gresham College, then Oxford. London streamed with people trying to get out, gridlocked by narrow streets and bottlenecked by the eight gates in the old Roman wall. Thomas Farriners bakehouse was not located on Pudding Lane proper. If the big smoke is any cleaner today than it was the day before, we owe it at least in part to a few licks of flame from a bakers oven. 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. In the confusion of the blaze, some believed that the Great Fire of London had been started by Dutch merchants in retaliation for the last of these engagements a vicious raid on the Dutch islands of Vlieland and Terschelling which had occurred barely a month earlier. The ground scorched his feet and he found nothing but dust, ash and ruins. Get HISTORYs most fascinating stories delivered to your inbox three times a week. :{. WebThomas Farriner - Wikipedia Thomas Farriner Thomas Farriner ( c. 1615 20 December 1670) was a British baker and churchwarden [1] in 17th century London. 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". On 10 October, people across the country went to church, fasted for the day and donated money to destitute Londoners. Who was to blame? The plague killed roughly 15 to 20 percent of the citys population, while the fire burned about a quarter of Londons metropolis, making around 100,000 people homeless. ", "The heat must have been intense because we have some medieval stones in the cathedral collections which have changed colour as a result of the fire, a witness described some of them as exploding like grenades.". Copyright Historic UK Ltd. Company Registered in England No. The great majority of buildings after the Fire had the same functions as before. The second phase of the public inquiry, which is expected to address how and why the cladding was adopted in the renovation, is continuing and is expected to end later this year. But when Pepys caught up with Sir Thomas Bloodworth in Canning Street, the mayor was like a fainting woman, with a handkerchief tied around his face to protect him from the smoke. [S]ince the Enlargement of the Streets, and modern Way of Building, one mid-eighteenth-century writer explained, by the Re-edifying of London there is such a free Circulation of sweet Air thro the Streets, that offensive Vapours are expelled, and the City free from all pestilential Symptoms for these eighty-nine Years. A royal proclamation put a stop to construction until new regulations had been ushered in. 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. This influenced practices throughout Britain, as well as establishing a new metropolitan urban aesthetic. Allegedly, his Whether by purging the seeds of the disease from the soil or purifying miasmatic air, the reasons given by contemporaries to this seemingly miraculous development were invariably misplaced. The Great Fire destroyed most of the official city of London (which was geographically smaller than modern-day London), but it didnt reach many of the outer metropolitan areas like Whitechapel, Clerkenwell and Southwark that were also affected by the plague. London, led by the decadent Charles II, enjoyed a lavish lifestyle and was, according to the deeply religious, ripe for a tumble. Anyone found to be flouting the new rules would be punished by having their house pulled down. The epidemic and epizootic dimensions of its disappearance in London were therefore related to, if not grounded in, the material aspects of the post-Fire response. London was, but is no more., Dominic Sandbrook is the author of State of Emergency: The Way We Were: Britain, 19701974 (Allen Lane), Don't miss the chance to claim a copy of Tracy Borman's latest book + FREE access to HistoryExtra.com when you subscribe to BBC History Magazine or BBC History Revealed. I could not sleep till almost two in the morning through thoughts of fire, Pepys wrote months later, in February 1667. Lawsuits have been filed against local authorities and manufacturers, including Arconic, the American company that manufactured the cladding, and Celotex, a British company that made the insulation. And yet, the City did rise again, and for contemporaries, it was felt to have done so in a more orderly and healthier manner. Don't miss out on the chace to claim your copy of Tracy Borman's latest book when you subscribe today! Their variety and beauty comes not only from his inventive genius and a close study of classical architecture, but also from an essential pragmatism about the ruins facing him. How do you think the people of London felt as their houses burned down? On September 2, 1666, 80% of medieval London burned to the ground in the largest fire in the city's history. Inside the City, if we could have walked down a street like Fenchurch Street in 1675, we would have seen an abrupt change from the brick buildings of the new city to the timber and plaster frontages of the pre-Fire city, at the point where the Fire was stopped. Several toppled into the Thames. The family was trapped upstairs but managed to climb from an upstairs window to the house next door, except for a maidservant who was too frightened to try, thus becoming the first victim. explore and learn delivered straight to your inbox. 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 report acknowledged but did not focus on the materials used for the buildings covering. Great Fire of London, 1666 | What Happened - HistoryExtra The nearly 900-page report harshly criticized the London Fire Brigade, especially for failing to urge residents to leave. Built from wood and straw, clustered together in tight alleys, Londons tenements were the perfect tinderbox, their overhanging jetties making it easier for the fire to move from street to street. In the aftermath of the disaster, London was a place of desperation. ), What is a 'monument'? Image source, Getty Images. I have been pulling down houses; but the fire overtakes us faster than we can do it. Bloodworth refused the Duke of Yorks soldiers and disappeared to refresh himself, having been up all night. Shops were still shops and for several decades after 1666 they were allowed to have projecting signs outside just as they had before the Fire. Wow!I love these facts. Fifty-one parish churches were rebuilt under the general direction of Christopher Wren (knighted in 1673). Officially, the city recorded 68,596 deaths from the Great Plague, and the true death toll may have exceeded 100,000. The recovery of the city also saw the rise of a number of beautiful and iconic buildings like St. Pauls Cathedral, which was redesigned by the famous architect Sir Christopher Wren. At least 65,000 people had been made homeless by the Fire. The first foundations, at the east end, were dug in 1675. Pepys, no fan of his predecessor, called Boltons actions the greatest piece of roguery that they say was ever found in a Lord Mayor. Plus, warehouses around Pudding Lane contained flammable materials such as oil and rope which soon caught alight, fuelling the flames! WebLondons burning! A New Quay, 40 feet wide and from Blackfriars to the Tower, was intended; but although a space was cleared back from the pre-Fire river wall for this purpose, it became gradually obscured by cranes, sheds and then permanent private warehouses. "There are reports that local people brought their furniture to the churchyard as they thought it would be safe and stacked it high against the cathedral walls," said Simon Carter, head of collections at St Paul's Cathedral. The images depicted not only a city blazing with fire, but scenes of naval warfare, infestations of rodents, mass death and starvation. (A 17th century architect, designer, astronomer and mathematician. There were more radical suggestions, such as the severe, box-like grid of identical squares by Richard Newcourt, or retired army officer Valentine Knights terrifying ladderfest of tiny streets. His family safe, Pepys dashed back expecting to find his home consumed, but it wasnt. Among the others who died in the fire were two young Italian architects who had moved to London to pursue their careers. Thomas Farriner - Wikipedia Sir Edward Harleys account mentions Farynors bakery maid, who, he says, was too scared to climb onto the roof next door with the rest of the household and became the fires first victim. 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. Many of those who lost their homes and livelihood to the fire built temporary shacks on the ruins of their former homes and shops until this was prohibited. The street layout mostly remained the same, and within 10 years the area ravaged by fire had been rebuilt, bringing new architecture to the old city quickly and on a large scale. Flames were moving quickly along the buildings combustible covering, wrapping the tower in flames. And there, he recorded, I did see the houses at that end of the bridge all on fire, and an infinite great fire on this and the other side the end of the bridge.. Grenfell tower caught fire in June of 2017. And, according to a report from a government-commissioned investigation, the London Fire Brigade failed to revoke the stay put advice at a time when the stairs remained passable.. WebWhat happened after The Great Fire of London? The fire raged for more than three days, consuming huge swaths of the city, but the Great Fire of London story often leaves out what happened after the fire. Uh oh! The Fire of London Disputes Act declared: Every one concerned should beare a proportionable share of the losse according to their severall Interests, but admitted that wherein in respect of the multitude of cases varying in their circumstances, noe certaine generall rule can be prescribed. To oversee disputes at the Fire Court, 22 men were recruited as firen judges. For bereaved families, the delay in accountability is a protracted pain. What was more unusual was for someone to start a fire in his house that set over 13,000 other houses on firewhich is what Farriner accidentally did. So the medieval criss-cross of alleyways and courtyards was rebuilt, albeit with wider streets and one new road. Pyle claimed that there had been a huge fight between 60,000 Presbyterians and the militia, which had resulted in the death and imprisonment of 30,000 rebels. As a measure against the incidence of large fires, new buildings were to be built in brick or stone, with the use of flammable materials restricted. As he travelled across Wiltshire to gather more information about the fire, Bulstrode Whitelocke bumped into his friend Sir Seymour Pyle who had had too much wine. Most of these deaths were from bubonic plague, a form of plague spread through fleas on small mammals. Meanwhile, five months before the fire Elizabeth Styles claimed to have been told by a Frenchman that at some point between June and October there would not be a house left between Temple Bar and London Bridge. Here we saw the Thames covered with goods floating, all the barges & boates laden with what some had time & courage to save, as on the other, the Carts &c. carrying out to the fields, which for many miles were strewed with moveables of all sorts, & Tents erecting to shelter both people & what goods they could get away, writes John Evelyn who, on hearing the news, couldnt resist taking his wife and son to Southwark to watch the carnage from the South Bank.

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