The Great Fire 1666

In the 1600s most houses in London had timber frames, which were often high and crammed together with little space between. Road were quite narrow.

Open fires were used for heating and candles used for lighting, either beeswax, rush or tallow according to income. There were flammable materials everywhere; hay in houses and streets, pitch and tar by the river for ships and boats, and kindling wood laying about and the City was 'tinder dry' after the long hot summer of 1666.

The Great Fire started in Thomas Farriner's Bakehouse in Pudding Lane, and was probably caused by the ovens not being damped down after baking finished on the Saturday night. This led to a spark falling onto a pile of fuel and causing a fire to start in the early hours of Sunday 2 September. 

The area around Pudding Lane was full of warehouses and a strong easterly wind quickly blew the fire from house to house. 

Thomas Farriner and his family had to climb out of an upstairs window and onto a neighbours roof to escape. Many Londeners fled to the river to escape by boat, or rushed to the City gates to escape to fields outside London. 

The fire raged west along the waterfront, which was packed with combustibles and reached the area around the present site of Southwark Bridge in the afternoon. Gaining momentum on Monday, the Fire advanced west to the River Fleet and north beyond Cornhill, Ludgate and the Royal Exchange.

Fire breaks were established by pulling down houses with 'fire hooks' but the wind blew the fire across the gaps and the job was made more difficult because of wood laying in the way.

Fire posts were set up around the City, each staffed by 130 men. Fire fighters were not organised, and often had little more than buckets and large syringes to spread the water. 

On the third day, gunpowder was used to clear a firebreak in front of All Hallows by the Tower, to port the Tower of London with its gunpowder stores. 

In all, the fire destroyed almost four-fifths of the City; 13,200 houses, 90 churches, including St Paul's Cathedral  and 50 livery company halls. 

The wind began to drop on Wednesday 5 September, allowing fire fighters to control and douse the flames. By Friday it had stopped. Some places continued to smoulder for months.

Fewer than 10 people were recorded as dying in the Great Fire. An extract from the London Gazette in September 1666 records the events

A Frenchman, Robert Hubert, confessed to starting the fire and was hanged. Records later showed that he was not actually in London at the time, having arrived three days later! 

The total loss was estimated at around £10m, at a time when the City's annual income was £12,000