The Great Fire of London

1
The Great Fire of London

• September 1st
• 1666

2
The fire begins

• Thomas Farynor was a baker who lived in Pudding
  Lane in London.
• On Saturday September 1st he thought he had put
  out all his oven fires and went to bed.
• BUT.. One of his ovens was still alight!

3

• Soon the whole house was on fire!
• Farynor and his family climbed out of a window
  and crawled across the roof to safety.
• But the wind blew the fire into the stables of
  the Star Inn nearby.
• The fire was spreading rapidly.

4
Samuel Pepys

• Samuel Pepys got up that night to see what was
  happening but then he went back to bed again.
• Fires were very common in London at that time.
• BUT this was no ordinary fire!

5
Samuel Pepyss Diary

• Samuel Pepys wrote a diary in a sort of code that
  is called shorthand.
• Here is what he wrote about that night.
• September 2nd. Jane called us up about 3 oclock
  in the morning, to tell us of a great fire they
  saw in the city.

6

• Samuel Pepys buried all his most valuable things
  in his garden.
• He buried his best wines, important papers about
  his work in the Navy, and, of course,
• his diary.

7
The fire spreads

• The fire spread from house to house and then
  along London Bridge and the bank of the River
  Thames.
• Most of the houses were timber framed and had
  thatched roofs.
• They were built very close together.

8

• The fire spread easily , blowing down the narrow
  streets.
• By Sunday the fire was still spreading.
• The whole of London was in danger.
• Many Londoners had to escape.
• They loaded their belongings into carts or boats
  and left their houses to burn.

9
Fighting the fire

• Watchmen and constables tried to put out the
  fire.
• They used buckets and syringes filled with water
  from the river, public wells and fountains.
• BUT the summer of 1666 had been very hot and
  most of the fountains were dry.

10

• Syringes like this were used to fight the Great
  Fire of London.

11
The end of the fire

• The Lord Mayor of London did not know how to stop
  the fire.
• Samuel Pepys went to see King Charles II to ask
  him for help.
• He sent soldiers to to help the firefighters.

12

• The soldiers pulled houses down with iron hooks.
• They even used gunpowder to blow up houses in
  the path of the fire.
• BUT
• the fire continued to spread.

13

• Finally the, on Wednesday September 5th, the
  wind changed direction and the fire stopped
  spreading.
• BUT
• most of London had been destroyed.
• 13,000 houses and 86 churches has been burnt
  down.
• Even St Pauls Cathedral had gone.

14
A New London

• Great architects like Sir Christopher Wren helped
  plan the new city.
• Most new buildings were built of brick or stone.
• They wanted to build the streets wider to stop
  any new fires spreading.

15
The Monument

• BUT
• this would have cost a lot of money.
• Only a few new wide streets were built.
• Most new buildings were built where the old ones
  stood.
• A monument was built to commemorate the fire.