BOOK HOUSE About the Great Fire of London (1) Read each of the facts about the Great Fire of London and then answer the questions. Try to write your answers in full sentences in your own words. Don t forget your punctuation! Fact: The Great Fire of London started in the bakery of Tom Farynor on Pudding Lane. He missed a glowing ember in the fire when he cooled the ovens, and this spark started a small fire in the early hours of Sunday 2nd September. Initially, the fire was not remarkable, and didn t appear to be spreading quickly. 1) How did the Great Fire of London start? Fact: It was when the roof of Farynor s bakery collapsed that the fire began to spread without being checked. Sparks fanned by a strong dry wind set fire to the Star Inn across the yard. The wind carried sparks further, setting fire to the wooden houses nearby. As burning timber beams from roofs fell across the narrow streets, the fire had a further route to spread. By dawn, warehouses along the River Thames were on fire, and the contents of these including oil, hay, coal and hemp all burnt easily and fiercely making it impossible to tackle the flames. 2) What caused the Fire to spread? Fact: At its height, the Great Fire of London destroyed around 100 houses an hour. 3) Assuming that the Fire burnt at this rate, how many houses would have been destroyed in: a) Two hours? b) Six hours? c) One day? d) Three days?
BOOK HOUSE About the Great Fire of London (2) Read each of the facts about the Great Fire of London and then answer the questions. Try to write your answers in full sentences in your own words. Don t forget your punctuation! Fact: The fire continued to burn fiercely for four days and four nights, finally beginning to die out on Wednesday 5th September. The fire subsided for several reasons: the wind dropped, which meant that sparks from the fire were not being spread so widely; effective firebreaks were created by a team led by the Duke of York using gunpowder to blow up large numbers of buildings in one go to create substantial gaps more easily than physically pulling houses down; and the fire had reached the stone walls of an ancient medieval church called the Temple, these walls did not burn as easily as the structures made of wood. 1) What factors caused the Great Fire of London to stop burning? Fact: Most Londoners believed that the Fire was started deliberately. Some blamed the French or Dutch due to recent or ongoing wars and disputes between the countries. They said that foreigners were starting fires throughout London by throwing fireballs, made of an animal fat called tallow, which were set alight and thrown into wooden buildings. Others suggest that the Fire was started because of tensions between people who followed different religions. In 1605 there was a famous plot to blow up parliament (Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot!) which was led by a group of Catholics. Many people from London s majority Protestant community thought that the Fire was another Catholic plot. Some people even believed that the King himself was to blame. King Charles II was not universally popular, and some people thought that he ordered the Fire to be started in order to distract from the bad behaviour and scandals that went on in his court. 2) Describe one of the conspiracy theories surrounding how the Great Fire of London started:
BOOK HOUSE My Great Fire diary Imagine that you are living in London in September 1666. Create yourself a character. This could be a fictional character, or someone we know existed, such as the baker Thomas Farynor or a member of his family. Write a diary extract from the point of view of your character, about what they have seen and heard during the blaze.
BOOK HOUSE Extracts from Samuel Pepys diary These extracts from Samuel Pepys diary were written on the day that the Great Fire started, Sunday 2nd September 1666. Some of our mayds sitting up late last night to get things ready against our feast to-day, Jane called us up about three in the morning, to tell us of a great fire they saw in the City. So I rose and slipped on my nightgowne, and went to her window, and thought it to be on the backside of Marke-lane at the farthest; but, being unused to such fires as followed, I thought it far enough off; and so went to bed again and to sleep. [ ] By and by Jane comes and tells me that she hears that above 300 houses have been burned down to-night by the fire we saw, and that it is now burning down all Fish-street, by London Bridge. So I made myself ready presently, and walked to the Tower, and there got up upon one of the high places [ ] and there I did see the houses at that end of the bridge all on fire, and an infinite great fire on this and the other side the end of the bridge [ ] So down, with my heart full of trouble, to the Lieutenant of the Tower, who tells me that it begun this morning in the King's baker s house in Pudding-lane, and that it hath burned St. Magnus s Church and most part of Fish-street already. So I down to the water-side, and there got a boat and through bridge, and there saw a lamentable fire. [ ] Everybody endeavouring to remove their goods, and flinging into the river or bringing them into lighters that layoff; poor people staying in their houses as long as till the very fire touched them, and then running into boats, or clambering from one pair of stairs by the water-side to another. And among other things, the poor pigeons, I perceive, were loth to leave their houses, but hovered about the windows and balconys till they were, some of them burned, their wings, and fell down. Having staid, and in an hour's time seen the fire: rage every way, and nobody, to my sight, endeavouring to quench it, but to remove their goods, and leave all to the fire, and having seen it get as far as the Steele-yard, and the wind mighty high and driving it into the City; and every thing, after so long a drought, proving combustible, even the very stones of churches [ ] I to White Hall [ ] and there up to the Kings closett in the Chappell, where people come about me, and did give them an account dismayed them all, and word was carried in to the King. So I was called for, and did tell the King and Duke of Yorke what I saw, and that unless his Majesty did command houses to be pulled down nothing could stop the fire. So near the fire as we could for smoke; and all over the Thames, with one's face in the wind, you were almost burned with a shower of firedrops. This is very true; so as houses were burned by these drops and flakes of fire, three or four, nay, five or six houses, one from another. When we could endure no more upon the water; we to a little ale-house on the Bankside, over against the 'Three Cranes, and there staid till it was dark almost, and saw the fire grow; and, as it grew darker, appeared more and more, and in corners and upon steeples, and between churches and houses, as far as we could see up the hill of the City, in a most horrid malicious bloody flame, not like the fine flame of an ordinary fire.
BOOK HOUSE W hat would you save? Samuel Pepys wrote the following in his diary on Monday 3rd September 1666: About four o'clock in the morning, my Lady Batten sent me a cart to carry away all my money, and plate, and best things, to Sir W. Rider s at Bednall-greene. Which I did riding myself in my night-gowne in the cart; and, Lord! to see how the streets and the highways are crowded with people running and riding, and getting of carts at any rate to fetch away things. Imagine that you have to save five of your own possessions. What would you save, and why? 1) 2) 3) 4) 5)
BOOK HOUSE My conspiracy theory! Although we now know that the Great Fire of London was an accident, and know where it began and how it spread, this was not common knowledge at the time. There were a number of rumours and conspiracy theories about what caused it. Can you come up with your own story about how it started? Do you think that it was started deliberately, and if so by whom and why? Or do you think it was an accident? And if so, how did it start?
BOOK HOUSE My monument to the Great Fire of London
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