Beginning September 2 in a Pudding Lane bakery, the blaze consumed most of the medieval City of London before winds died down and firebreaks created by gunpowder demolition finally stopped it. Old St. Paul's Cathedral lay in ruins. Remarkably few deaths were officially recorded, though historians suspect the toll among the poor was undercounted. The disaster reshaped London, prompting new building codes favoring brick over timber.
By September 5, the fire that began four nights earlier in Thomas Farriner's bakery had already erased most of the walled City of London, an area of medieval streets barely changed since the Middle Ages. Samuel Pepys buried his prized parmesan cheese and wine in his garden to save them, then watched the flames from a boat on the Thames.
The turning point came when the Duke of York's men used gunpowder to blow up buildings and create firebreaks, combined with a fortunate drop in wind. By this day, the fire's advance had finally stalled, though smoldering ruins would burn for weeks. Old St. Paul's Cathedral, its stones said to have exploded from the heat, was a smoking shell.
Official death tolls listed only a handful of victims, but the intensity of the blaze, capable of melting iron and pottery, means the true number, especially among the poor and undocumented, was almost certainly higher. The fire cleared the way for Christopher Wren's rebuilding of London, including a new St. Paul's, and led Parliament to mandate brick and stone construction to prevent a repeat catastrophe.
Key people: Samuel Pepys, Christopher Wren, Thomas Farriner