The Great Fire of London

Here is a fascinating article about the Great Fire of London, which was the subject of a Channel 4 documentary yesterday. Most people are familiar with the basic story -that the fire began in Thomas Farriner's bakery in Pudding Lane and was then spread rapidly across the city by a strong wind after a hot summer. However, the context is less known. England was at war with France and the Netherlands at the time and only weeks earlier the Royal Navy had deliberately set alight the Dutch city of West Terschelling. The majority of the people in London therefore assumed the Great Fire was a deliberate act of arson, and angry mobs sought out foreigners in the city to seek their revenge - a Frenchwoman was attacked because people thought the baby chicks she carried in her apron were fireballs.

The authorities believed the fire was an accident, but in September a French watchmaker confessed to starting the fire with 23 conspirators. His confession was deeply flawed but he was eventually hanged. Later it was discovered he was at sea at the time and people returned to the theory it was an accident. This did not stop the London Monument to the fire (Still standing close to London Bridge - see map below) from carrying a plaque blaming the Catholics for the fire. This was eventually removed in the 19th Century. Meriel Jeater, curator at the Museum of London, suggests that the paranoia shown after the Fire must have been very similar to how people must have felt after terrorist outrages like 9/11 and 7/7, and that human nature has changed very little in the meantime...

View Larger Map