We are very fortunate to have several eye witness accounts of the Great Fire. Samuel Pepys’ description of the event in his diary is very famous but there are others, such as John Evelyn’s diary entries, Thomas Vincent’s sermon about the fire, letters, newspapers, royal documents and many contemporary books published shortly afterwards.
Other sources of information are the royal proclamations, Acts of Parliament and regulations which tell us about the official steps that were taken for the relief of the homeless and the rebuilding of the City. All are vital to producing a detailed picture of events and how they affected Londoners.