The Great Fire of London 1666

The Great Fire of London is described as both a catastrophe and a revolutioniser. It was a catastrophe because it destroyed hald the city and it was a revolutioniser because the city could be rebuilt out of stone. But what happened to cause all of this. First we need to know some background. The King at the time was Charles the Second and also the Plague was devastating the city killing thousands every day.

The Story...

At 1:05 am on Sunday the 2nd of September one of Thomas Farriner's ovens was left still with a fire in it. The flames caught hold and eventually spread throughout the whole bakery. This event started the Great Fire of London. His Maid called Jane was the first to die out of the tousands to die in the next 2 days.

Here is a recreation of what happened in his oven...

And unfortunately this is what happened afterwards...



The aftermath



From the intial burning of the bakery a full scale destruction of everything began...

Once the Government had heard that the whole of London was ablaze they decided that they must blame someone or they will be blamed. They decided to blame foreigners and they branded them as arsonists. They even told the army to hunt down any foreigners and put them in prison or kill them. They were blamed for starting the fire in teh bakery at Pudding Lane. Here is a picture of troops chasing foreigners.



Foreigners being chased



Some people who were going to church as normal...



Going to Church





But soon St Paul's Cathedral was on fire as well...



People running from fire



People at the time wondered why the church burned down. It was made of stone and the only reason it did burn down was because there was wooden scaffolding inside. Many people hid there and much jewellry was placed there for protection. But all the people there died and all teh belongings were destroyed.

But it wasn't all bad... The city could be rebuilt out of stone and with new layouts and bigger roads. Also the fire destroyed the last of the Plague which had killed thousands of normal people.

*Note people in the pictures are not real and no Lego people were hurt in the making of this presentation.