Tercentenary Of Great Fire Of London

Press, Issue 30997, 1 March 1966, Page 25

Tercentenary Of Great Fire Of London

<N.Z.P.4. Butßr -* LONDON. Londoners are organising o- °f the most spectacular pageants ever held on the Thames river r September this year. It will mark the 300th anniversary of the Gr»t Fire of London in 1666, when most of the plague-ridden city was d'troyed in four days.

All types of floodlit craft, Led by fire boats shooting jets of water high into the air, will sail down the river. From vantage points on the river banks, crowds, bathed in artificial moonlight, will later watch a great fireworks display. The London evening newspaper, which is sponsoring the celebrations, also hopes to have a display by massed bands “with special fireworif 2 music.” 1 By coincidence, the Lon/ 1 2 Fire Brigade is commenr a ‘ *• ting its centenary at the time. Now one of the larger and « most modern * forces in the work" wlt “ 1 5000 fully-trained fiji*®?- !t s has grown in 100 y» s fro m a force of only 150 en , wh<> ’ raced through [>don on t horsedrawn tender an d had J to pump water by® l ?*!- t But when Lor® s Great Fire started in faker’s shop r in Pudding LanF® on * morning of ‘Ptember 1, i 1666, the fin fir® engine * was only 33 y» re «>d, and its 1 rudimentary pumps were more unw-ieF than useful. t To make jitters worse, the i firefighters ® re hindered by t furniture r®d in the streets i from ho»s threatened by g the flame In four days, the a Great FT destroyed a city s which oh the previous year f had bei ravaged by the s plague t Tn one year, 68,000 s Londe 6ls alone had died, s when-he fire broke out, the plage had spread to the (

province disastrous results?/ p u< ifig Lane in 1666 was a dark,-* !)We d. narrow street, whicf sloped down to the Thajts. John Farynor, the Kiris baker, had gone to bed at w P-m. after his day’s was done. it 2 am. an employee was fised by a choking sensaon and found the house full ■ smoke. The baker, his rife, daughter, and the ssistant escaped over the oofs. The maid remained, nd became the first victim of he fire. Fanned by an easterly gale, he fire swept across a city of rought-parched lath and imber houses with narrow, isanitary lanes which just Mowed passage to a coach. Under a pall of smoke inch coloured the sunset, he people of London fled the ity by boat, or camped on le nearby hills. Samuel Pepys described in is diary the beginning of the re as seen by one of his raids from his house in eething Lane, near the 'ower of London, at 3 a.m.

He wrote: “Jane called us up about three in the morning to tell us of a great fire they saw in the city. So I rose, and slipped on my nightgown and went to her window; and thought it to be the backside of Mark Lane at the farthest; but being unused to such fires as followed, I thought it far enough off; and so went to bed again, and to sleep.’’ The Lord Mayor of London (Sir Thomas Bludworth)

thought the same thing. At 3 a.m., he was awakened at his home in Gracechurch street. He arrived at the fire with some of his officers, annoyed at being roused from bed in the early hours for such an unimportant reason as a fire. He had been drinking heavily on the previous evening.

After taking a cursory look at the damage so far, he gave his opinion. “Pish!” he exclaimed irritably. In the morning, Pepys saw his mistake and the beginning of panic in the city. His sharp eye caught one tiny detail. “The poor pigeons were loath to leave their houses,” he wrote, “but hovered about the windows and balconys, till they burned their wings and fell down.” Sir Thomas Bludworth also discovered his mistake. An anonymous lawyer wrote later that he was “not long ere undeceived of his foolish confidence.”

At the time popular opinion demanded a culprit, and the blame was fixed on Roman Catholics and Frenchmen. The monument erected near the site of the outbreak records “perpetual remembrance of that most dreadful burning of this Protestant city, begun and carried on by ye Popish faction.” Robert Hubert, the 25-year-old son of a Rouen watchmaker was executed in October for starting the fire, although later it was found he was not even in England when it began. Although the city was destroyed, few were killed. The monument records that the fire consumed 89 churches, 13,200 houses and 400 streets. Mr Farynor’s maid went down in history as the first victim of the fire. But the London gazette said no lives were lost. Other records say that four people were known to have been burnt to death and the total loss was estimated at £lO million.

A Bill of Mortality later gave the total deaths for the three weeks from August 28 to September 18 as 704, of which 104 were due to plague. It also listed: “four burnt in several places; five drowned at several places; six frightened; seven killed by several accidents.”

To mark the tragedy, city workers will this year make a pilgrimage to Pudding Lane, in the heart of the modern City, to light a beacon near the spot where the old bakery stood 300 years ago.