The Great Fire Of London

The people of London who had managed to survive the Great

Plague in 1665 must have thought that the year 1666 could
only be better, and couldn’t possibly be worse! Poor souls…
they could not have imagined the new disaster that was to
befall them in 1666.

A fire started on September 2nd in the King’s bakery in

Pudding Lane near London Bridge. Fires were quite a common
occurrence in those days and were soon quelled. Indeed,
when the Lord Mayor of London, Sir Thomas Bloodworth was
woken up to be told about the fire, he replied “Pish! A woman
might piss it out!”. However that summer had been very hot
and there had been no rain for weeks, so consequently the
wooden houses and buildings were tinder dry.

The fire soon took hold: 300 houses quickly collapsed and the
strong east wind spread the flames further, jumping from
house to house. The fire swept through the warren of streets lined with houses, the upper stories of
which almost touched across the narrow winding lanes. Efforts to bring the fire under control by
using buckets quickly failed. Panic began to spread through the city.

As the fire raged on, people tried to leave

the city and poured down to the River
Thames in an attempt to escape by boat.
Absolute chaos reigned, as often happens
today, as thousands of ‘sightseers’ from the
villages came to view the disaster. Samuel
Pepys and John Evelyn, the diarists, both
gave dramatic, first-hand accounts of the
next few days. Samuel Pepys hurried off to
inform King Charles II. The King
immediately ordered that all the houses in
the path of the fire should be pulled down
to create a ‘fire-break’. This was done with hooked poles, but to no avail as the fire outstripped them!

By the 4th September half of London was in flames. The King himself joined the fire fighters, passing
buckets of water to them in an attempt to quell the flames, but the fire raged on. As a last resort
gunpowder was used to blow up houses that lay in the path of the fire, and so create an even bigger
fire-break, but the sound of the explosions started rumours that a French invasion was taking
place…. even more panic!

As refugees poured out of the city, St. Paul’s Cathedral was caught in the flames. The acres of lead
on the roof melted and poured down on to the street like a river, and the great cathedral collapsed.
Luckily the Tower of London escaped the inferno, and eventually the fire was brought under control,
and by the 6th September had been extinguished altogether.

Only one fifth of London was left standing! Virtually all the civic buildings had been destroyed as
well as 13,000 private dwellings, reports say that only six people had died. But we will find out if that
last fact is true..
 Hundreds of thousands of people were
left homeless. Eighty-nine parish
churches, the Guildhall, numerous
other public buildings, jails, markets
and fifty-seven halls were now just
burnt-out shells. The loss of property
was estimated at £5 to £7 million. King
Charles gave the fire fighters a
generous purse of 100 guineas to
share between them. Not for the last
time would a nation honour its brave
fire fighters.

In the immediate aftermath of the fire, a poor demented French watchmaker called (Lucky) Hubert,
confessed to starting the fire deliberately: justice was swift and he was rapidly hanged. It was
sometime later however that it was realised that he couldn’t have started it, as he was not in England
at the time!

Although the Great Fire was a catastrophe, it did cleanse the city. The overcrowded and disease
ridden streets were destroyed and a new London emerged. A monument was erected in Pudding
Lane on the spot where the fire began and can be seen today, where it is a reminder of those terrible
days in September 1666.

BEANTWOORD DE VRAGEN
1. Kwamen branden in die tijd vaak voor?
2. Hoe kwam het dat de huizen zo droog waren?
3. Zag de burgemeester de ernst van de situatie in?
4. Noem drie acties die ondernomen werden om te voorkomen dat het vuur zich verspreidde.
5. Waarom zorgden de explosies voor paniek onder de bevolking?
6. Welk gebouw ging verloren: de St Paul’s Cathedral of de Tower of London?
7. Wat deed koning Charles om de brandweermensen te bedanken?
8. Wat was een positief gevolg van de Great Fire?

The Great Fire Of London

AS IT HAPPENED…

Sunday 2nd September 1666

Weather Report – hot, dry and windy
The Thames water level was very low following a hot summer

Early hours
The fire began in the Pudding Lane h______________ of baker Thomas Farriner. When
questioned later Farriner said that he had checked all five fire hearths in his house and he was
certain that all fires were out. Nevertheless, when the family were woken by s______________ in
the early hours of the morning, the fire was so well established that the family could not use the
stairs and had to escape through an upstairs window.
 Early morning
The Lord Mayor was advised to order the demolition of four houses. He
d_______________ not to issue the order because the city would then
be responsible for re-building those houses. The fire spread destroying
houses west of Pudding Lane. The City’s water engine was also
d________________.

7 am
Samuel Pepys’s maid reported to him that more than 300 houses had
been destroyed.

Mid-morning
News of the fire spread through the city and the s_________ were filled
with people running to escape the fire.

Sunday Night
The fire had b__________ for half a mile to the East
and North of Pudding Lane. King Charles II had
been informed of the fire and he had instructed the
Mayor to pull down any houses necessary to
s___________ the spread of the fire. However, in a
City where the houses were very tightly packed,
pulling down enough houses to stop the fire before
the fire took hold was a d______________, almost
impossible task.

Monday 3rd September 1666

Weather Report: hot dry and windy

Early morning
The fire continued to spread and householders had to c______________ whether to help the fire-
fighting effort or attempt to save goods from their own houses. The Thames was full of boats laden
with property rescued from houses that had burnt down. Profiteers made money by hiring carts
and boats at high p______________. Most people could not afford their prices and could only
save what they could carry.

Late Morning
To reduce the numbers of people in the area of the fire, an order was
given that carts could not be brought near to the fire. Charles II attempted
to bring some order to the City by establishing eight fire posts around the
fire with thirty foot soldiers assigned to each. His brother, the Duke of
York, was put in charge.

Late Evening
Because the w______________ was blowing from the East the fire had
spread eastwards more slowly. Fire-fighters managed to prevent
Westminster School from being destroyed although it was badly damaged.
The fire was now 300 yards from the Tower and orders were given for extra fire engines to be sent
to prevent its destruction. Many of London’s wealthiest citizens had taken their m____________
and valuables to the Tower for safe-keeping.

Tuesday 4th September 1666

Weather Report: hot, dry and windy

Early morning
The fire showed no sign of s______________. All attempts to check its spread had failed and the
fire-fighters were getting very tired.

Afternoon
All carts, barges, boats and coaches had been hired out.

8 p.m.
The roof of St Paul’s c______________ caught fire.
Wednesday 5th September
Weather Report: hot, dry but NO wind.

The fire continued to b______________ but, due to the fact that the wind had dropped, it was not
spreading so rapidly. The destruction of a number of houses in Cripplegate had stopped the
spread of the fire and had allowed fire-fighters to put it out.

Evening
All fires in the West of the City had been put out.

Thursday 6th September

Weather Report: hot, dry, but no wind

Early Evening
The fire was finally put out. It had caused a huge amount of damage.

Is It True That Only Six People Died

In The Great Fire?

For a fire that destroyed some four-fifths

of London — including 89 churches, four
of the City’s seven ________ (POORTEN),
around 13,200 houses and St Paul’s
Cathedral — one remarkable aspect of
the Great Fire of 1666 is the death toll.
_______ (VOLGENS) the official records, just
six people died in the _______ (RAMP).

According to records, the first person to

die in the Great Fire was a _______
(DIENSTMEISJE) employed by Thomas
Farriner, a baker in whose Pudding Lane establishment the fire began. While Farriner, his
daughter and a manservant were _______ (IN STAAT OM) escape the blaze, the unnamed maid
was not. Another victim was Paul Lowell, an elderly Shoe Lane _______ (HORLOGEMAKER)
whose remains were later found in his house.

In the parish of St Mary Woolnoth, the body of one Richard Yrde was found in a privy where
he was overcome by smoke. The burnt _______ (LIJK) of an unnamed old woman was found
near St Paul’s, and three bodies were found inside the cathedral itself, mummified by the
heat; those who found them were _______ (ONZEKER) whether they were victims of the fire
who had sought refuge in the cathedral or remarkably well-preserved bodies that had lain
there for _______ (EEUWEN).
What the traditional death toll does not take into account is those whose deaths were
indirectly _______ (VEROORZAAKT) by the Great Fire, and there is _______ (BEWIJS) for a few of
these.

A woman suspected of being an arsonist

was murdered by an angry mob in
Moorfields. A man is supposed to have
dropped dead from fright on Tower Hill
while watching the _______ (VUURZEE). A
few people are said to have been killed
afterwards, when weakened floors gave
way while they were searching through
their ruined homes.

James Shirley, a playwright, had fled his

Fleet Street home along with his wife and
taken _______ (SCHUILPLAATS) in a
makeshift refugee camp in St Giles-in-the-Fields; living in the open in the cold weather that
followed, both fell ill and died.

To this sad and surprisingly short list must be added Robert Hubert, a French watchmaker
who (somewhat unconvincingly, it must be said) _______ (BEKENDE / GAF TOE) to starting the
fire and was hanged at Tyburn. Given the scale of anti-French and anti-Catholic feeling and
the resulting need on the part of the authorities to find a convenient scapegoat, it’s possible
that his confession was obtained by _______ (MARTELING).

Many historians accept the low death figures - there is evidence that many Londoners were
able to get away before their homes burned down. The alarm was raised quickly in the early
hours of Sunday, 2 September 1666, and while the Lord Mayor Sir Thomas Bloodworth
dithered, many Londoners took immediate steps to ensure the safe evacuation of
themselves and anything they could carry.

On that day, the diarist Samuel Pepys observed “every

_______ (WEZEN) coming away loaden with goods to save –
and here and there sick people carried away in beds … the
streets full of nothing but people and horses and carts loaden
with goods, ready to run over one another, and _______
(WEGHALEN) goods from one burned house to another”.

Following the fire, some people moved to unburned parts of

London or its surrounding _______ (DORPEN), while others
moved to other parts of the country or even emigrated.. Few
records were kept of such movements; wherever they went,
burned-out _______ (OVERLEVENDEN) would have prioritised the finding of food, drink and
shelter over finding out what might have happened to friends and neighbours. Those who
did return to rebuild their lives in London would have had greater concerns than pondering
the _______ (LOT) of those who did not.

While it seems hard to believe that the death toll from such a tragedy was low, all of the
evidence from the time suggests that it was. It is highly _______ (WAARSCHIJNLIJK) that there
were unrecorded deaths. It means that, in answer to the question ‘is it true that only six
people died in the Great Fire?’, we must say ‘no’.

BEANTWOORD DE VRAGEN
9. Waar werd Paul Lowell aangetroffen?
10. Welke twijfel bestaat er over de drie lichamen die in de kathedraal werden aangetroffen?
11. Wat gebeurde er in Moorfields?
12. Hoe kon het dat mensen stierven terwijl ze in hun vernielde huizen spullen zochten?
13. Denkt men dat Robert Hubert écht de brand gesticht heeft?
14. Waardoor konden veel inwoners van Londen toch op tijd ontsnappen aan het vuur?
15. Zijn er écht maar 6 mensen overleden? Welke conclusie trekt de schrijver?

Connect the person on the right with the corresponding description on the left.

I am a diarist, I am an
eyewitness to the fire. I lived King Charles II
in Seething Lane.

I am the king at the time of

the fire. I helped to fight the Samuel Pepys
fire.

I am the master baker of

Pudding Lane. The fire Sir Christopher Wren
started in my bakery.

I am an architect. I
designed the new St Paul’s Duke of York
Cathedral and other
buildings.

My name is James, I
directed the firefighters. I John Donne
am also the king’s brother.

I am a poet. My statue was

the only monument in St Thomas Farriner
Paul’s Cathedral that was
not destroyed by the fire.
 The Great Fire of London
A poem by Paul Perro King Charles sitting in his palace
Thought something must be __________
The year was 1666, He sent out a fire engine
Late one September night, With a big water gun.
The baker’s shop in Pudding Lane
Glowed with an orange _________. They went to the Thames for water
But at the river bank
The baker's oven was on fire The fire engine slipped in mud,
The flames began to spread. Fell in the Thames, and ___________!
Thomas the baker was upstairs
He was asleep in bed. When the king was told about this
Before too long the walls caught fire He was really upset.
There billowed out black __________. He realised that the fire posed
The fire made such a loud noise A very serious threat.
Tom suddenly awoke.
He decided that he must help,
He woke up all his family Put on his boots and cloak,
And got them out of there. And he marched out of his ____________
He called out for the firemen Towards the fire and smoke.
And called out for the mayor.
The firemen saw the shops nearby He helped some fire-fighters who
And said “Let's knock these down, Had started to despair,
Or else they will catch fire too And everyone was really glad
And it will spread through ________.” That the good king was _________.

But no, the Mayor would not do that, Eventually, the wind died down -
He said “Just hang about, The fire died down too.
The fire is not that bad, you know London would have to be rebuilt
Wee* could soon put that out!” There was much work to do.
The damage caused would have been less
So they tried to put the flames out In sixteen sixty six
But they just grew ___________. If the houses weren't made from wood,
Sure enough they spread, soon half of If they were made from __________
London was on fire.
.
Bewerking: Tom Offermans
ANTWOORDEN

OPDRACHT 1
1. Ja, branden kwamen regelmatig voor en werden meteen geblust.
2. Het was een hete zomer geweest, met geen neerslag.
3. Nee, hij zei dat “een vrouw het vuur nog zou kunnen uitplassen”.
4. Het vuur blussen met emmers, huizen omver trekken, huizen opblazen.
5. De bevolking dacht dat ze aangevallen werden door Frankrijk.
6. St Paul’s Cathedral
7. Hij gaf ze geld
8. Ziektes en ongedierte (ratten) verdwenen door het vuur.

OPDRACHT 2
1. House
2. Smoke
3. Decided
4. Destroyed
5. Streets
6. Burned
7. Stop
8. Difficult
9. Choose
10. Prices
11. Wind
12. Money
13. Stopping
14. Cathedral
15. Burn

OPDRACHT 3

1. Gates
2. According to
3. Disaster
4. Maid
5. Able to
6. Watchmaker
7. Corpse
8. Unsure
9. Centuries
10. Caused
11. Evidence
12. Blaze
13. Shelter
14. Confessed
15. Torture
16. Creature1
17. Remove
18. Villages
19. Survivors
20. Fate
21. Likely
OPDRACHT 4
9. Paul Lowell werd aangetroffen in zijn huis aan Shoe Lane.
10. Of ze door de brand om het leven zijn gekomen, of dat ze er al langer begraven lagen.
11. In Moorfields werd een vrouw door een boze menigte vermoord, omdat ze haar van brandstichting
verdachten.
12. Ze zakten door de vermolmde vloer.
13. Nee, ze denken dat zijn bekentenis komt door een marteling. In het eerste verhaal in dit boekje
staat dat Hubert niet eens in Engeland was, ten tijde van het begin van de brand.
14. Er werd al vroeg alarm geslagen.
15. Nee, niet alle doden zijn opgeschreven, ook niet de doden die naderhand (indirect aan de brand)
zijn overleden.

OPDRACHT 5
1 = Samuel Pepys
2 = King Charles II
3 = Thomas Farriner
4 = Sir Christopher Wren
5 = Duke of York
6 = John Donne

OPDRACHT 6
1. Light.
2. Smoke
3. Town
4. Higher
5. Done
6. Sank
7. Palace
8. There
9. Bricks

Ook leuk:
Fire of London game