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| Oil painting of the Great Fire of London, seen from Newgate, 1670s © Museum of London |
September 2 marks the 350th anniversary of the
Great Fire of London. The fire raged through the city for four days, leaving
some 100,000 people homeless. A new interactive display at the Museum of London
explores the conflagration, and the effect it had on the capital.
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| © Museum of London |
The fire broke out in Thomas Farriner’s bakery in Pudding
Lane in the early hours of the morning, and the exhibition starts with a
recreation of the narrow street (above), showing how the closely-built wooden properties
allowed the flames to spread quickly.
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| © Museum of London |
We then see the fire’s rapid progress as
it spreads across a map of London (above), with displays of some of the objects
excavated from the ruins – pottery, bricks, tiles, ceramics and glass. This ceramic roof tile (below) which should have been flat and terracotta in colour has been bent in half by temperatures over 1500'C.
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| © Museum of London |
There were no fire brigades at the time - neighbours were
expected to work together using equipment stored in churches and the halls of
City companies. Among the items on display are a bucket, firehook, and a star exhibit, the museum’s
restored hand-pumped fire engine from the late 1670s (below). Recent trials have shown it wouldn’t
have been very effective. It was the eventual use of firebreaks – blowing up
houses in the path of the fire –
that
finally halted its spread.
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| © Museum of London |
Eighty per cent of the City was consumed and the ruins
smouldered for months. More than 13,000 houses, official buildings, St Paul’s
Cathedral and 87 churches had gone up in smoke at a time when insurance didn’t
exist. Shopkeepers lost their entire stock. In one display case is this hoard of
17
th century glass, found under burn debris during excavations of a
cellar on Gracechurch Street.
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| © Museum of London |
Many
Londoners fled to makeshift tent encampments such as the one in
Moorfields, and remained there for up to eight years, as arguments raged about
how the City should be rebuilt and who would pay for it. The diarist, John
Evelyn, who later submitted plans for a new city layout, wrote: “The poor inhabitants dispersed...some under tents...others in
miserable huts and hovels... now reduced to extremist misery and poverty.” King
Charles II started a national fund to help them; more than £16,000 (about £2.4
million today) was given.
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| Map of rebuilt London, 1676 © Museum of London |
In the end, redesigning the City proved too
complicated, and the old street pattern was mostly retained (above), with a few
improvements, such as the use of brick rather than wood, and the banning of
overhanging signs – in future, they were to be mounted flat on the wall, like
this one from an inn, of a monkey eating an apple.
Not everyone obeyed.
Public buildings were a priority and
rebuilding started immediately on Newgate Prison and the Guildhall. The task
took more than 40 years. The new St Paul’s, designed by Sir Christopher Wren, was
not completed until 1711, and one of the last churches to be finished was St
Michael Cornhill in 1722.
The fire was so devastating it made headlines in countries
such as France, Germany, the Netherlands and Spain. Some of these reports are on
display. A Spanish account says: “It was
one of the greatest fires of the kind that the world has ever known.”
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| © Museum of London |
The museum has made good use of its rich collection of
objects related to the catastrophe. The atmospheric lighting echoes the fire’s
progress, and with the school holidays just starting, the curators have strived to make
the exhibition family-friendly, though with enough material – letters,
diaries, etc - for the more academic visitor.
Tickets from £8 online.
https://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/museum-london/whats-on/exhibitions/fire-fire
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