Shortly after midnight on Sunday 2nd September a fire went rogue in Thomas Farriner’s bakery in Pudding Lane in the City of London.
Now fires were a regularity in the City of London at this time. Unfortunately, this one, as I said earlier went rogue. It quickly spread to the nearby houses, then to nearby lanes, while it was a time of strong winds, it was driven west across the city, creating a most frightening fireball!
There was only one way to stop it, to create a firebreak now that mean demolishing the houses in its path. This was a major decision and a brave one, that as you can imagine, took the Lord Mayor of London, Sir Thomas Bloodworth, from the break out of the fire in the middle of Saturday/Sunday night until Sunday evening to take. The problem was that by this time the fire was galloping across the city towards Westminster.
All this meant that by Tuesday, two days later it had destroyed most of the city, including St Pauls Cathedral, and was moving out o the city and close to Whitehall and the Kings residence.
What were they to do!
Then, they, just at that point, Westminster and the Royal Palace were saved. The wind direction changed!
Phew! It was a close one.
The result was overwhelming social and economic problems for London, but in the end, they rebuilt London almost the same as it was before the fire.
Isn’t History interesting?
When will we learn the lessons of history? However you can learn from these sites: