The lessons learned during the Great Fire of London ten years earlier had little effect on Southwark. It was still made up of old timber-framed buildings and narrow streets.
On 26 May 1676 a small fire started in a paint and oil seller’s shop on what is now Borough High Street. The fire spread quickly. The regulations put in place after the Great Fire seem to have been ignored, as the fire engine pipes were old, punctured and of little use. The fire raged for 17 hours before it was extinguished using the old method of blowing up houses to create fire breaks. Again, King Charles II and his brother the Duke of York assisted in the fire-fighting effort. About 20 people were killed and 500 houses destroyed.