The Great Fire of London

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The Great Fire of LondonFive days in September 1666 on a timeline: how a bakery fire in a dry wooden city became a catastrophe, who was blamed, and what London did next.This interactive story graph needs JavaScript. The full content follows.

The Great Fire of London: A fire that began in a baker's house in Pudding Lane on Sunday 2 September 1666 and consumed most of the medieval City within days, the rest of this map is organised around it.

The Great Plague: London's last major plague epidemic ended the year before the fire, leaving a weary, poorer city; it was not cured by the fire.

A city of timber and pitch: Close-packed wooden houses, thatch and pitch, with warehouses of oil, tar and brandy by the river, gave the fire fuel at every step.

The dry summer of 1666: After a long dry spell, wood, thatch and even stone were primed to burn, and water was scarce.

Firefighting in 1666: There was no organised fire brigade: parishes kept buckets, hooks and hand squirts, and the main tactic was pulling houses down to starve a fire.

Farriner's bakery, Pudding Lane: The fire broke out in the house and bakery of the King's baker around one in the morning; nobody can say for certain how.

Sunday 2 September: Day one: Pepys is told of a fire, goes back to bed, then by mid-morning sees London Bridge's end burning and rows to Whitehall to warn the King.

Monday 3 September: Day two: Londoners flee with carts and boats, hope fades, and suspicion falls on foreigners; the Duke of York takes charge.

Tuesday 4 September: Day three: the fire reaches Fleet Street and old St Paul's; gunpowder is first used to blow gaps in its path.

Wednesday 5 September: Day four: the wind drops, the blown-up gaps hold, and Pepys climbs a steeple to see the ruin.

Thursday 6 September: Day five: embers flare again at the Temple and Bishopsgate, but the great fire is over; rumours of a plot are still circulating.

A strong east wind: The wind blew the flames westward into the City from the first night and only fell on Tuesday night, which is why the fire ended when it did.

Lord Mayor Bludworth: The Lord Mayor, Sir Thomas Bludworth, hesitated over pulling houses down and told Pepys the fire was beyond him.

Firebreaks and gunpowder: Pulling houses down by hand was too slow; blowing them up with gunpowder, begun on the third day, made gaps wide enough to stop the flames.

Samuel Pepys: A Navy official whose diary gives the best hour-by-hour account, from his first dismissal of the fire to burying his wine and cheese.

John Evelyn: A diarist and Royal Society fellow who watched from Southwark and Whitehall, and then drew up a plan to rebuild London.

The London Gazette, no. 85: The government newspaper's official account, printed after the fire destroyed its press premises, treats the fire as an accident and mentions arrests of foreigners.

Charles II and the Duke of York: The King sent Pepys with orders to demolish; his brother James, Duke of York, patrolled with his guards and took charge of the response.

Thomas Farriner: The King's baker, whose house was the first to burn; some sources spell the surname Farynor, and the maid in the house is said to have died.

How much burned: Most sources agree on about 13,200 houses, 87 churches and the cathedral, the Guildhall and the Royal Exchange; the proportion of the City lost is more loosely quoted.

Counting the damage: Sources do not agree on percentages or even the church count, which shows how rough the numbers behind the story are.

How many died?: The recorded death toll is tiny for such a fire, but sources give six, nine, or fewer than ten, and some think more went unrecorded.

Old St Paul's destroyed: The medieval cathedral, with its wooden scaffolding and goods stored inside, burned on the third night and its stones flew.

Suspicion of foreigners: Londoners at war with the Dutch and French blamed foreigners; mobs attacked them and the Gazette itself reports arrests.

Robert Hubert's confession: A French watchmaker's son confessed to starting the fire; his story did not fit the facts, but he was indicted.

Hubert hanged at Tyburn: He was executed on his confession even though the authorities largely accepted the fire was an accident.

The official verdict: an accident: The government's own account concluded the fire was an unhappy chance, or divine judgement, not a plot.

The Monument's inscription: In 1681 words blaming a 'popish faction' were added to the Monument; they were removed in 1830.

Hollar's survey: On 10 September the King ordered an exact survey of the ruins; Wenceslaus Hollar's 1667 plan shows the burnt area as white.

Wren's plan: Christopher Wren proposed wide streets, squares and a canal on the Fleet, six days after the fire ended; it was never built.

Evelyn's plan: John Evelyn showed his own plan to the King two days later, also with broad vistas; also never built.

Charles II's declaration: The King declared that houses would be rebuilt in brick or stone, not timber.

Rebuilding of London Act: Parliament required brick or stone fronts and four set sorts of building, and widened streets, while keeping the old street plan.

The Fire Court: An emergency court settled disputes between landlords and tenants over who should pay to rebuild.

The Monument: A fluted column near Pudding Lane that the Act ordered, as high as it is far from the bakery.

St Paul's rebuilt: The ruined cathedral was demolished and Wren's replacement begun about nine years after the fire.

Fire insurance begins: The first property insurance office opened in 1680 and insurers soon employed their own brigades.