Timeline of the Great Fire

Sunday 2 September, 1666

AM  1am: Fire breaks out at Thomas Farriner's bakery on Pudding Lane.
  Farriner's maid is the first victim of the Fire.
  3am: Samuel Pepys' maid, Jane, wakes him to tell him about the fire.
4am: The Lord Mayor, Thomas Bludworth, comes to look at the fire and declares 'A woman might piss it out'.
7am: Pepys gets up and is told by Jane that 300 houses have been destroyed.
  The fire spreads down Fish Street Hill towards London Bridge, destroying St Magnus' church.
  The waterhouse and water pipe over the tower of St Magnus' church is burnt - this stops the water supply and harms fire fighting efforts.
8am: Pepys hires a boat and sees the fire spread onto London Bridge and along the Thames to the Steelyard.
  Fishmongers' Hall burns down, the first of 44 company halls to be destroyed.
  St Margaret Fish Street Hill burns down. It wasn't rebuilt after the fire and the Monument stands there now.
  People living in waterfront houses start to escape the flames.
  People begin to send their belongings into the northern parts of the City to keep them safe.
9am: News of the fire spreads around the City. Fleet Street is full of people all worried about what is going on. A man rides through, telling them to arm - rumours start of a French or Dutch attack.
  Laurence Pountney Church steeple mysteriously bursts into flames, ignited by flying sparks (but people suspect foul play).
10am: Pepys travels to Whitehall to tell the King Charles II of the situation. He recommends pulling down houses to make fire breaks. The king orders Pepys to command the Lord Mayor to do this.
  The pulling down of houses begins.
  People in the unburnt parts of London go to church as usual.
11am: Mobs begin to roam the streets looking for foreign or Catholic arsonists.
  4000 frenchmen and Catholics are rumoured to be attacking. People arm themselves with whatever weapons they can find.
PM 12pm: The fire spreads north above Thames Street.
  Pepys meets the Lord Mayor in Cannon Street and gives him the king's orders. He replies 'I have been pulling down houses. But the fire overtakes us faster than we can do it'.
  Merchant Taylors' Grammar school burns down. John Goad, the schoolmaster, saves some of the library books. The school opens in temporary accomodation 18 months later.
  Trained bands of soldiers patrol, looking for arsonists.
1pm: People in Cannon Street move their goods to Lombard Street (they had previously moved them into Cannon Street but now it was too close to the fire).
  3pm: King Charles II and his brother, James, Duke of York, come along the Thames in the royal barge to observe the fire.
  The king issues a royal command to William Lindsay, Lord Craven, to help the Mayor with the fire, before returning to Whitehall.
  The fire burns in the waterside warehouses, fed by all the flammable goods inside - wine, oil, hemp, tar, coal, timber.

Monday 3 September, 1666

AM  1am: the post office on Cloak Lane burns down. James Hicks, his wife and children flee to the Golden Lion Inn in Red Cross Street, saving as much post as they can carry.
  4am: Pepys starts moving his belongings from his house to that of Sir William Rider in Bethnal Green.
  5am: the fire has reached the eastern end of Cannon Street.
  The last London Gazette is published, alerting people about the outbreak of the fire.
  Flames destroy halls of the Parish Clerks', the Plumbers' and the Joiners' companies.
  Fire spreads across Thames Street to the church of St Martin Vintry and St James Garlickhithe.
  Cutlers' Hall in Cloak Lane burns down but the caretaker manages to save the library and plate.
8am: King Charles spends half an hour near Queenhithe encouraging a squad of men who are pulling down houses and removing flammable goods.
9am: the Duke of York takes command of fire-fighting operations and has 'fire posts' set up, manned with 100 civilians and 30 foot soldiers, at Temple Bar, Clifford's Inn Gardens, Fetter Lane, Shoe Lane and Cow Lane.
  People start to flee London, most going to Moorfields and Finsbury fields in the north and Tower Hill in the east.
  10am: fire within four houses of Queenhithe.
Fire reaches Lombard Street and Gracechurch Street, the wealthiest district in London.
  The Dean of Westminster School collects the schoolboys and together they prevent St Dunstan's-in-the-East from being destroyed.
  Flames approach Cornhill and the Royal Exchange. Citizens pull down the south side of Cornhill to create a fire break. However, they neglect to remove the rubbish from the street, which catches fire, setting light to the north side of Cornhill.
PM 2pm: first militia arrive to help crowd control, prevent looting and aid in fighting the fire.
  Cornhill and Royal Exchange catch fire, the only thing to survive the fire at the Exchange is a statue of Sir Thomas Gresham.
  3pm: Lombard Street is completely destroyed.
  Chaos in the streets leads to carts being banned from entering the City.
More fire posts are set up at Cripplegate, Aldersgate and Coleman Street.
Threadneedle Street is now aflame. St Benet Finke's church is destroyed. Around 23 churches across London are burning simultaneously.
  5pm: fire reaches Cordwainer Street, Friday Street and Bread Street.
  Salters' Hall in Swithen Lane burnt.
  Derby House, office of the Heralds, catches fire. Most of the ancient records of chivalry are saved and King Charles II allows them to be temporarily stored at Whitehall.
  Bucklersbury, center of the apothecary trade, is ablaze.
  9pm: Baynards Castle catches fire. The London Gazette offices in the grounds of the castle are evacuated with the printing presses being left behind.
  Flames reach St Mildred Poultry, St Christopher-le-stocks, St Bartholomew Exchange, Grocers' Hall and Mercers' Hall. 200lbs of melted silver is later recovered from the site of Mercers' Hall.
  Flames threatening Clothworkers' and Bakers' Halls and a group of Genoese settlers living in Mincing Lane.
  Fire is stopped by the high brick walls of Leadenhall, which housed a market and an arsenal for storing guns and ammunition.
  The fire is 300 yards away from the Tower of London. All the remaining fire-engines at Woolwich and Deptford Naval Yards are sent there.

Tuesday 4 September, 1666

AM 12am: Houses at Whitefriars destroyed overnight in an attempt to stop the fire.
5am: King Charles II and the Duke of York ride around the city encouraging those fighting the fire. Charles carries with him a pouch containing 100 guineas, which he distributes among the workmen as a reward and incentive.
  Cheapside, the City's principal street, catches fire.
6am: The Queen Mother, Henrietta Maria, flees from her home at Somerset House to Hampton Court.
  The fire post in Coleman Street is abandoned.
  Houses around Cripplegate are blown up with gunpowder rather than pulled down.
  The ban on carts entering the city is withdrawn as it cannot be enforced.
  Preparations are made for the Exchequer to be moved to Nonsuch Palace in Epsom.
PM 12pm: Flames reach Salisbury Court and the houses between it and Bridewell.
  Fire approaches the Guildhall. Thousands of records and documents are hurriedly stored in the crypt beneath it.
  St Paul's School is completely destroyed.
  Royal College of Surgeons is consumed by flames but most of the charters and records, 140 books, a collection of instruments and portraits of Drs Harvey and Fox are saved.
  The Sessions House in the Old Bailey is destroyed.
  Ludgate and Newgate catch fire. The prisoners of Newgate are moved to Southwark but many escape along the way.
  Lord Hollis and Lord Ashley stop a mob from murdering the Portugese ambassador.
  In fear for their lives, many foreign residents in London escape to the house of the Count de Molena, the Spanish ambassador.
6pm: Fire reaches Temple. Inner Temple is gutted as are buildings along Fleet Street.
  Whitehall is considered at risk. The King and courtiers begin shipping goods away by river while buildings from Somerset Houses as far as Charing Cross and Scotland Yard are demolished or unroofed.
7pm: Fire is burning along both sides of Fleet Street towards Chancery Lane.
  Pepys and his neighbour Sir William Batten dig pits in their gardens in which they store wine and a parmesan cheese.
  Church of St Bride is gutted by fire and Axel Yard, birthplace of Pepys, is consumed by the flames.
8pm: St Paul's Cathedral catches fire. It had been covered in wooden scaffolding in preparation for restoration work and had been filled with people's belongings as they believed the stone building would not catch fire.

Wednesday 5 September, 1666

AM 2am: Pepys is woken by his wife Elizabeth who says she has heard Barking Church, at the end of their lane, is on fire. Pepys moves Elizabeth, their maid Jane and friend Will Hewer along with £2350 in gold to Woolwich.
  The Whitefriars area is on fire.
  Fire spreads to Shoe Lane. Here Paul Lowell, an 80 year old deaf watchmaker, refuses to leave declaring that he would rather die in his burning house, which eventually collapses on top of him.
  Fire destroys Lambs Building in Middle Temple before being stopped.
  Buildings along the Strand are blown up to stop the fire spreading.
  Whitehall Palace is considered at risk. Courtiers pack their belongings.
7am: Pepys returns to London from Woolwich and finds that Barking Church is not on fire, nor is the rest of his street.
  Pepys climbs tower at Allhallows and reports the fire is spread as far as he can see.
  Concerned for the refugees in the fields around London, King Charles releases a proclamation ordering suppliers to continue bringing in food every day. He also orders markets to be set up at Bishopsgate, Tower Hill and Smithfield and temporary markets at Clerkenwell, Islington, Finsbury Fields, Mile End Green and Ratcliffe.
PM 12pm: A fire at Holborn Bridge extinguished.
7pm: All the fires in the west of the city are out except one at Cripplegate.
10pm: The roof of Middle Temple Hall catches fire. A seaman, Richard Rowe, climbs onto the roof with a soldier from Kingston and the pair of them beat out the flames. They are later rewarded £10 and £2 respectively.

Thursday 6 September, 1666

AM 5am: Pepys is called up to lead some Navy men to an isolated fire in Bishopsgate. This is the last outbreak of fire.
PM 12pm: Charles rides out to Moorfields and addresses the public, declaring that the fire was an accident and not part of a Papist plot.
  200 members of the Hertford militia are called in and asked to bring carts and tools with them to clear the streets and dampen down the fire. More arrive later from Kent, Middlesex and Surrey.

Friday 7 September, 1666

AM 5am: Samuel Pepys wakes to 'find all well'.
  John Evelyn walks through the ruins, getting lost and burning the soles of his shoes.
  Charles II authorises the withdrawal of troops brought in to fight the fire.
  John Evelyn walks out to Highgate and Islington to see the homeless laying by heaps of their belongings.

Tuesday 11 September, 1666

  Christopher Wren presents his plan to rebuild the City to the king.

Thursday 13 September, 1666

  John Evelyn submits his new layout for London to the king.

Tuesday 25 September, 1666

  A Commons Committee is appointed to investigate the cause of the fire.

Thursday 4 October, 1666

  Robert Hooke, Peter Mills, Edward Jermyn, Christopher Wren, Hugh May and Sir Roger Prat appointed to survey the burnt area.

Wednesday 10 October, 1666

  The official day of fasting to commemorate the fire. Money is collected across the country for the relief of destitute Londoners.

Saturday 27 October, 1666

  Robert Hubert hanged at Tyburn after he confessed to starting the fire.

Tuesday 20 November - Wednesday 5 December, 1666

  London's streets are cleared of fire debris.

Tuesday 11 December, 1666

  Three people are murdered by thieves in the ruins.

Monday 31 December, 1666

  Pepys writes despairingly in his diary: 'the City less and less likely to be built again, every body settling elsewhere, and nobody encouraged to trade'.
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