A view of the Great Fire of London, 1666. An Illustration of the place of London, and the frightening fire of the same
Published in Frankfurt, c1670, by Matthaus Merian the younger.
A dramatic view of London in flames as it was seen in 1666 from south of the Thames.
The Globe Theatre is shown safe in Southwark, despite having been closed by the Puritans in 1642 and pulled down about three years later, two decades before the Great Fire of London.
What was a small fire that started just after midnight on the 2nd September 1666 at the bakery of Thomas Farriner in Pudding Lane, swept west across the City causing devastation inside and outside the walls. The fire spread as far as Fetter lane and continued to rage for three days across the City of London. It destroyed 13,500 houses, 87 parish churches, 44 Company Halls, the Royal Exchange, Custom House, Bridewell palace (and a number of other prisons), St Paul’s Cathedral, the General Letter Office, and the three western city gates (Ludgate, Newgate, and Aldersgate).
Samuel Pepys recorded in his diary that he borrowed a cart to "to carry away all my money, and plate, and best things" and "did dig a [hole], and put our wine in it; and my Parmazan cheese, as well as … some other things."
A melted piece of pottery found by archaeologists in Pudding Lane, where the fire started, shows that the temperature reached 1,250 °C
The damage caused by the fire is estimated to have cost approximately £1.7 billion in today’s money (2019).
The population of London in1665 was around 370,000.