Beginning History: The Great Fire Of London

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Letwin, William (1963). The Origins of Scientific Economics. Routledge. pp.50–51. ISBN 978-0-415-31329-2.

In addition to the physical changes to London, the Great Fire had a significant demographic, social, political, economic, and cultural impact. The fire "caused the largest dislocation of London's residential structure in its history until the Blitz". [142] Areas to the west of London received the highest number of new residents, but there was a general increase in the population density of the suburbs surrounding London. [143] Approximately 9,000 new houses were built in the area in which over 13,000 had been destroyed, and by 1674 thousands of these remained unoccupied. [144] Tenants who did remain in London saw a significant decrease in the costs of their lease. [145] Sussman, Nathan; Coffman, D'Maris; Stephenson, Judy (19 November 2020). Financing the rebuilding of the City of London after the Great Fire of 1666 (Report). Centre for Economic Policy Research. Rat: So, Pepys went to command the Lord Mayor to pull down the houses, while King Charles II followed up the Thames in his royal barge to see the fire for himself.

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All dates are given according to the Julian calendar. Note that, when recording British history, it is usual to use the dates recorded at the time of the event. Any dates between 1 January and 25 March have their year adjusted to start on 1 January according to the New Style. By mid-morning the fire had breached the wide affluent luxury shopping street of Cheapside. [90] James's firefighters created a large firebreak to the north of the conflagration, [91] although it was breached at multiple points. [92] Through the day, the flames began to move eastward from the neighbourhood of Pudding Lane, straight against the prevailing east wind and towards the Tower of London with its gunpowder stores. [93] The garrison at the Tower took matters into their own hands after waiting all day for requested help from James's official firemen, who were busy in the west. They created firebreaks by blowing up houses on a large scale in the vicinity, halting the advance of the fire. [94] Garrioch, David (2016). "1666 and London's fire history: A re-evaluation". The Historical Journal. 59 (2): 319–338. doi: 10.1017/S0018246X15000382. The social and economic problems created by the disaster were overwhelming. Flight from London and settlement elsewhere were strongly encouraged by Charles II, who feared a London rebellion amongst the dispossessed refugees. Various schemes for rebuilding the city were proposed, some of them very radical. After the fire, London was reconstructed on essentially the same medieval street plan, which still exists today. [5] London in the 1660s

The Great Fire of London, depicted by an unknown painter (1675), as it would have appeared from a boat in the vicinity of Tower Wharf on the evening of Tuesday, 4 September 1666. To the left is London Bridge; to the right, the Tower of London. Old St Paul's Cathedral is in the distance, surrounded by the tallest flames. Central London in 1666, with the burnt area shown in pink and outlined in dashes ( Pudding Lane origin [a] marked with a green line) Hanson, 77–80. The section "Fire hazards in the City" is based on Hanson, 77–101 unless otherwise indicated. Townspeople: Fire! Fire! We need to tell somebody about this… I wish someone would invent the telephone. And the fire brigade.Let’s get The Lord Mayor.Radical rebuilding schemes poured in for the gutted City and were encouraged by Charles. [134] Apart from Wren and Evelyn, it is known that Robert Hooke, Valentine Knight, and Richard Newcourt proposed rebuilding plans. [135] All were based on a grid system, which became prevalent in the American urban landscape. If it had been rebuilt under some of these plans, London would have rivalled Paris in Baroque magnificence. According to archaeologist John Schofield, Wren's plan "would have probably encouraged the crystallisation of the social classes into separate areas", similar to Haussmann's renovation of Paris in the mid-1800s. [136] Wren's plan was particularly challenging to implement because of the need to redefine property titles. [137] The Crown and the City authorities attempted to negotiate compensation for the large-scale remodelling that these plans entailed, but that unrealistic idea had to be abandoned. Exhortations to bring workmen and measure the plots on which the houses had stood were mostly ignored by people worried about day-to-day survival, as well as by those who had left the capital; for one thing, with the shortage of labour following the fire, it was impossible to secure workmen for the purpose. [138] The Great Fire of London (Famous People, Great Events) by Gillian Clements – clear, simple text with lots of useful illustrations and lists. Topic Guides – Explore our topic guides and discover teaching ideas, resources, facts, videos and books that will help you to teach your children about a wide range of topics and themes. Thomas Farrinor and his wife got out of their bakery in time, but their maid was too frightened to jump from the roof. She was the first to die. Surprisingly, only nine people died as a result of the fire.

Low, Rachael, ed. (2013) [1950]. The History of British Film. Vol.2 (reprinted.). Routledge. p.191.A ten-year-old boy called Edward Taylor and his family were questioned for throwing fireballs at an open window in Pudding Lane and in the streets. Fireballs were made from animal fat (called tallow), set alight and used to start fires. However, the fire was most likely caused by chance rather than by a deliberate act. Carlson, Jennifer Anne (September 2005). "The economics of fire protection: from the Great Fire of London to Rural/Metro". Economic Affairs. 25 (3): 39–44. doi: 10.1111/j.1468-0270.2005.00570.x. By the late 17th century, the City proper—the area bounded by the city wall and the River Thames—was only a part of London, covering some 700 acres (2.8km 2; 1.1sqmi), [11] and home to about 80,000 people, or one quarter of London's inhabitants. The City was surrounded by a ring of inner suburbs where most Londoners lived. [7] The City was then, as now, the commercial heart of the capital, and was the largest market and busiest port in England, dominated by the trading and manufacturing classes. [12] The City was traffic-clogged, polluted, and unhealthy, especially after it was hit by a devastating outbreak of bubonic plague in the Plague Year of 1665. [7] Some of my readers may have an interest in being informed whether or not any portions of the Marshalsea Prison are yet standing. I myself did not know, until I was approaching the end of this story, when I went to look. I found the outer front courtyard, often mentioned here, metamorphosed into a butter shop.