The Great Fire of London overlaid on modern London

by Double-decker_trams

42 comments
  1. So basically the City of London / everything at the time…

  2. Add to the fact that area represented basically all of London at the time, pretty much nothing to the south of the river apart from the immediate river front with open fields behind it.

  3. London’s burning, London’s burning.
    Fetch the engine, fetch the engine.

  4. Are there any traces left on monuments or buildings in memory of this period?

  5. Imagine the people that were having drinks in The Shard back then, just watching all of this unfold. Madness!

  6. why are all the comments in this thread getting downvoted ? Everyone is at zero

  7. Got to wonder what London (the city) would look like nowadays if the fire never happened?

  8. Those poor people at Bank trying to find an exit…!

  9. Even the fire wouldn’t go south of the river after 16.66?

  10. More so concerned with the black hole swallowing south London.

  11. ‘Fears of foreign terrorists and of a French and Dutch invasion were as high as ever among the traumatised fire victims. There was panic on Wednesday night in the encampments at Parliament Hill, Moorfields, and Islington: a light in the sky over Fleet Street started a story that 50,000 French and Dutch immigrants had risen, and were marching towards Moorfields to murder and pillage. Surging into the streets, the frightened mob fell on any foreigners whom they happened to encounter, and were pushed back into the fields by the Trained Bands, troops of Life Guards, and members of the court.’

    Tale as old as time..

  12. If anyone wants to know how the fire changed the city, I’ve explained it here.

    The fire allowed a chance to rebuild London with new regulations as a fire of this scale was inevitable with how the city was built the fire is also the reason that there is sadly not much pre 17th century architecture in London as there should be.

    A new architectural style was created by Christopher Wren, in part chosen by King Charles II, there were plans to make it even more illustrious but it was too expensive due to the costs incurred by the fire, the great plague, the second Anglo-Dutch war and the raid on Medway.

    New regulations around avenue / road width which is why there are extremely large streets in many areas.

    87/109 of the city’s churches burned down and were consequently rebuilt, many were designed by Christopher Wren such as St Paul’s cathedral.

    The city was laid out on a much more lattice type regular shape which is why it differs from other villages that later joined London which more grow out naturally like Kingston or Wimbledon.

    Jettying (balconies hanging over the streets) was banned post fire.

    A primitive version of the London Fire Brigade was created.

    Without the fire most of these things would not have happened and the city would be quite different but a fire was essentially inevitable. If anyone has any questions about any of this feel free to ask.

  13. For those who are interested: this is actually a lot more fire than you’d usually want in a city.

  14. Ha! Well, I’m south of the river. How snooty do you feel now, Northies?

  15. Did this happen because the then mayor underestimated the urgency of the fire?

  16. Wow if that caught fire today it would wipe out the entire financial sector. On an unrelated note I think thatched roofing looks really pretty, they should bring it back.

  17. This is the kind of content I wish we saw more of on this sub

  18. Even since the 17th century, South London got nothing.

  19. Pudding Lane, Christopher Wren, St Pauls, Early September. I remember it all from school like it was yesterday. London could’ve changed radically after this but it didn’t really.

  20. So the Southbank and Barbican remain intact. Brutalist architecture is nothing if not fireproof!

  21. *Matthew Ruth marked himself safe in Hampstead 😉 🙂

  22. I’d be toasting marshmallows off the Barbican balcony while chanting “Burn baby, burn!”

  23. I will never forget reading what they did to that poor girl who just went to rescue her baby chicks

  24. I actually love the effect of the fire’s reflection on the Shard

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