London Fire September 2th, 1666

London’s burning

Black and white illustration showing the North side of Long Lane, Smithfield

Long Lane, Smithfield. Drawing of a house made from combustible materials, built before the Great FireThus by September 1666, all that was required was a spark. This was provided at the house of Thomas Farynor, the king’s baker in Pudding Lane, near London Bridge. At 2.00am on Sunday 2nd September his workman smelled smoke and woke the household. The family fled across the nearby roofs, leaving only a maid, too scared to run, who soon became the first of the four listed casualties of the fire.

With only narrow streets dividing wooden buildings, the fire took hold rapidly, and within an hour the Mayor, Sir Thomas Bloodworth, had been woken with the news. He was unimpressed, declaring that ‘A woman might piss it out’. Yet by dawn London Bridge was burning: an open space on the bridge, separating two groups of buildings, had acted as a firebreak in 1632. It did so again: only a third of the bridge was burned, saving Southwark from destruction and confining the fire to the City of London, on the north bank.

By René Arbour

Management certificate of Credit Card (New York - 1983-84) Bac Administration , Security for the people (Minesota 1984)