Events that changed the world

The Great Fire of London

The event that changed 17th-century London forever

It was 1 am on Sunday 2 September, 1666. London was sleeping. In a small baker’s shop in Pudding Lane, Thomas Farriner and his workers were making bread for the next day when, suddenly, a fire started. In the four days that followed, the fire destroyed thousands of houses. Very many people who lived in London no longer had homes. How did this happen, and why was the damage so bad?

A fire needs three things to start: oxygen, fuel and a spark. In the baker’s shop in Pudding Lane, a worker wasn’t doing her job properly. The ovens were too hot and there were sparks in the air. The weather that year in London was very warm, with no rain for many months. It was late summer, but winter was coming so people had lots of food and oil in their cupboards. Large buildings were full of wood, coal and other winter fuels and a strong wind was blowing from the east. These were the perfect conditions for a fire to spread. What followed was one of the worst things to happen in the 17th century.

The fire spread very quickly and it was difficult to stop. It started in a poor, crowded part of London, where streets were narrow and houses were very close to each other. Tens of thousands of people were living in very small spaces. People were very frightened when the fire started and didn’t know what to do. They screamed and ran from their houses. Many tried to save family members. Others grabbed their most expensive pieces of furniture and carried them as they ran. People broke doors and windows to escape from their homes. The streets were soon full of broken pieces of wood. Some people escaped from the fire in boats. Others survived by jumping into the river and swimming.

For four days this terrible fire burned. At last, the Duke of York had a plan. His soldiers destroyed some large buildings, including one that was full of paper. This made a ‘fire break’ and stopped the fire from spreading. At about this time another good thing happened – the wind began to blow in a different direction. Finally, the fire stopped burning.

Although the fire killed very few people (possibly only six), it destroyed at least 13,000 houses – 80 per cent of the city’s buildings. Thousands of people were now without a home. Many people left London to live in different cities in England.