The Bakery Fire That Redrew London

1. Pudding Lane

A fire began in a bakery on Pudding Lane in September 1666. Dense buildings and strong winds helped a local incident spread rapidly. The fire began within a densely built urban environment. The setting helped determine how a local outbreak became a wider catastrophe.

The bakery’s neighbours were about to lose much more than breakfast.

2. A city built close together

A fire's progress depends on what surrounds its starting point. London's crowded buildings and narrow spaces made it difficult to treat the outbreak as a problem confined to one household. As it spread, decisions about protecting property became decisions about how to stop danger from reaching the next street.

The neighbors had become part of the fire's route.

3. The spreading fire

Flames crossed the City of London as residents escaped with belongings. There was no modern fire brigade to organise a familiar emergency response. Containing a spreading fire involved decisions about buildings around it. Those choices affected homes as well as the route of the flames.

The river became a route for people and possessions.

4. Creating gaps

Firefighters and soldiers pulled down buildings and used gunpowder to make firebreaks. Weaker winds eventually helped slow the spread. People had to move belongings while routes became dangerous. The destruction was experienced as displacement rather than merely a changing skyline.

Stopping destruction required deliberately destroying more buildings.

5. The ruined city

Much of the City was devastated and around 100,000 people were left homeless. Rebuilding demanded shelter, money and decisions about the streets ahead. Rebuilding required decisions about how the city should function afterward. A new layout could not immediately replace every lost home and livelihood.

Surviving the flames did not mean having a home.

6. The city after the flames

When the immediate emergency passed, people still needed places to live and work. Rebuilding was therefore more than replacing a damaged skyline. Decisions about streets, buildings and public institutions had to be made in a city whose inhabitants were already experiencing the consequences, without the luxury of waiting for a perfect plan.

The last extinguished flame did not finish the emergency.

7. Plans and reality

Ambitious redesigns were proposed, but the rebuilt city largely retained familiar street routes. The disaster altered London without neatly resetting it. The event's scale made it a lasting part of London's history. Its aftermath includes the people and institutions that had to begin again.

Even a great fire could not erase every old shortcut.

Sources

• London Museum — Great Fire