Museum of London relights the Great Fire of 1666

23 January 2007

In the early hours of Sunday 2 September 1666, the Lord Mayor of London, Thomas Bludworth, was raised from his bed to inspect a fire in the City. Distinctly unimpressed, he declared “a woman could piss it out” before returning to his slumber.

London's Burning press pack  (PDF 2MB)

Five days later only a fifth of the City of London remained standing, as the fire which elicited Bludworth’s disdain took hold of the city and very nearly destroyed it. London’s Burning - the Great Fire of London 1666, a new exhibition at Museum of London, which opens on 16 March 2007, takes the most famous disaster in London’s history and tells its story through the voices of those who lived through it.

The exhibition follows Londoners’ experiences of the Great Fire. We may be familiar with facts of the fire itself, but what do we know about these people who lived through the terror of having their homes and livelihood destroyed? How did they cope? What happened to them afterwards?

Focusing on eye-witness accounts, London’s Burning will reveal the personal side of the tragedy: Samuel Pepys rescuing his bags of gold at 4am in his nightshirt; Elizabeth Peacock and her 3 children being left with ‘not so much as a stool to sit upon’ and the boys of Westminster School who helped fight the fire. The exhibition explores why a fire which claimed less than 10 lives, scarred London as surely as the Great Plague the year before, which claimed 100,000.

A dramatic video installation will transport visitors back to the streets of 17th Century London, and let them experience how a bustling city, full of merchants, traders and craft workers, collapsed into ruins, and let them hear from Londoners left to pick through the debris of their lives. The gallery contains interactive displays and questions, allowing children to engage with the story and think about how the fire changed the lives of Londoners and the city they lived in.

A wide range of contemporary objects bear testimony to the strength of the fire and the desperate and futile efforts made to quell the blaze. A 17th century oven matching the likely culprit for the fire’s origin in Pudding Lane is on display, next to the hopelessly ineffectual fire fighting equipment of the day.

The panic which enveloped the city’s residents can be read in these paltry squirters and hooks, which would have been utterly useless against a furnace which reached some 1000°C. Archaeological finds from a building which stood two doors down from the origin of the fire on Pudding Lane give a physical record of an episode which literally scorched itself into the fabric of the city.

London’s Burning also tells of a city’s remarkable survival, how London responded to the fire and rebuilt itself. The blame, recriminations, scapegoating and summary justices are all here. As are the plans for new beginnings, designed by Christopher Wren and others, cast aside by financial imperatives. But these sit side by side with moving artistic responses to the Great Fire, and the legislative procedures that were its legacy.

Meriel Jeater, exhibition curator, says

'The exhibition highlights the personal tragedies within the disaster that affected not just London, but the whole country - the woman who, while rescuing an apron full of chickens from the flames, was attacked by a mob who thought she was an arsonist carrying fire balls, or Robert Hubert, the disturbed scapegoat for the fire, who was hung before the official enquiry declared him innocent.

'These stories, and many more, show how people dealt with the fire in some of the most dreadful and the most heroic ways.'

For more information or images please contact:

Lisa Glanville
Museum of London Press Office
tel: 020 7814 5511
email: lglanville@museumoflondon.org.uk

Notes to editors

1. The Museum of London tells the lively story of London from pre-historic times to the present day. Find out what Romans ate for dinner, experience the Great Fire of London and find out when pointy shoes first became fashionable. Reconstructed interiors and street scenes are alternated with displays of original artefacts found in the museum's archaeological digs.
   
2. From March 2007 to Summer 2009, the museum will be redeveloping its lower galleries to retell the story of London and Londoners from 1666 to the present day. The £18 million project, which is the largest the Museum has seen since opening in 1976, will revitalize the galleries, open up 25% more gallery space and create a glass frontage overlooking London Wall.
   
   The new galleries will open in 2009 with significantly increased access to the Museum’s objects, both in the galleries and online, and will also include a new Clore Learning Centre, a theatre and a central Sackler Hall containing an information zone and coffee point.
   
3. Throughout the redevelopment work, visitors will continue to be able to discover the city's many incarnations in the London before London, Roman London, and Medieval London galleries, together with London's Burning and a series of topical exhibitions. A full programme of activities and events for all ages, bringing London's past and present to life, will continue.
   
4.  For more information, including about how to support the project by “buying a year of London’s history” and becoming part of the new display see www.museumoflondon.org.uk/buyayear or call 020 7814 5505.
   
5. The archaeological finds come from a shop which was located two doors down from the bakery on Pudding Lane where the fire started. Peninsula House was excavated in 1979.