Great Fire of London destroyed large areas of London in 1666. The fire began in Pudding Lane, near London Bridge, on Sept. 2, 1666. It ended on September 7, after destroying most of the City of London as far west as the Temple.
London houses in the 1600’s were built mainly of wood, and they crowded so tightly over the narrow streets that the upper stories almost touched. There was no effective firefighting system, and a strong wind from the east fanned the flames through houses made abnormally dry by a long, hot summer. King Charles II personally supervised demolition operations to make an open strip that the fire could not cross, and, when the wind fell, the danger of the fire spreading farther was over. The English writer Samuel Pepys described the Great Fire vividly in his Diary (see Pepys, Samuel).
The Great Fire destroyed about 13,000 houses in the business area of the city, 89 parish churches, and the old St. Paul’s Cathedral. New buildings of brick and stone replaced the wooden houses that had been a breeding-ground for disease. The English architect Sir Christopher Wren built the new St. Paul’s Cathedral. A monument stands near the spot in the City where the Great Fire started in 1666.
