Transcript The Great Fire of London

The Great Fire of London
September 1st
1666
The fire begins
Thomas Farynor was a baker who lived in
Pudding Lane in London.
On Saturday September 1st he thought he
had put out all his oven fires and went to
bed.
BUT….. One of his ovens was still alight!
Soon the whole
house was on fire!
Farynor and his
family climbed out of
a window and
crawled across the
roof to safety.
But… the wind blew
the fire into the
stables of the Star
Inn nearby.
The fire was
spreading rapidly.
Samuel Pepys
Samuel Pepys got
up that night to see
what was happening
but then he went
back to bed again.
Fires were very
common in London
at that time.
BUT… this was no
ordinary fire!
Samuel Pepys’s Diary
Samuel Pepys wrote a diary in a sort of code that
is called shorthand.
Here is what he wrote about that night.
“September 2nd. Jane called us up about 3 o’clock
in the morning, to tell us of a great fire they saw in
the city.”
Samuel Pepys
buried all his most
valuable things in
his garden.
He buried his best
wines, important
papers about his
work in the Navy,
and, of course,
his diary.
The fire spreads
The fire spread from
house to house and
then along London
Bridge and the bank
of the River Thames.
Most of the houses
were timber framed
and had thatched
roofs.
They were built very
close together.
The fire spread easily
, blowing down the
narrow streets.
By Sunday the fire
was still spreading.
 The whole of London
was in danger.
Many Londoners had
to escape.
They loaded their
belongings into carts
or boats and left their
houses to burn.
Fighting the fire
Watchmen and
constables tried to
put out the fire.
They used buckets
and syringes filled
with water from the
river, public wells
and fountains.
BUT… the summer
of 1666 had been
very hot and most of
the fountains were
Syringes like this
were used to fight
the Great Fire of
London.
The end of the fire
The Lord Mayor of
London did not
know how to stop
the fire.
Samuel Pepys went
to see King Charles
II to ask him for
help.
He sent soldiers to
to help the
firefighters.
The soldiers pulled
houses down with
iron hooks.
 They even used
gunpowder to blow
up houses in the
path of the fire.
BUT…
the fire continued to
spread.
Finally the, on
Wednesday September
5th, the wind changed
direction and the fire
stopped spreading.
BUT…
most of London had
been destroyed.
13,000 houses and 86
churches has been
burnt down.
Even St Paul’s
Cathedral had gone.
A New London
Great architects like Sir
Christopher Wren
helped plan the new
city.
Most new buildings
were built of brick or
stone.
They wanted to build
the streets wider to
stop any new fires
The
BUT…
this would have cost a
lot of money.
Only a few new wide
streets were built.
Most new buildings
were built where the
old ones stood.
A monument was built
to commemorate the
fire.
Monument