WhyWaitForever - London - History - Great Fire

The London Gazette

The ordinary course of this paper having been interuppted by a sad and lamentable accident of Fire lately hapned in the City of London : it hath been thought fit for satisfying the minds of so many of His Majesties good Subjects who must needs be concerned for the Issue of so great an accident, to give this short, but true Accompt of it.

On the second instant, at one of the clock in the Morning, there hapned to break out, a sad in deplorable Fire in Pudding-lane, neer New Fish-street, which falling out at that hour of the night, and in a quarter of the Town so close built with wooden pitched houses spread itself so far before day, and with such distraction to the inhabitants and Neighbours, that care was not taken for the timely preventing the further diffusion of it, by pulling down houses, as ought to have been ; so that this lamentable Fire in a short time became too big to be mastred by any Engines or working neer it. It fell out most unhappily too, That a violent Easterly wind fomented it, and kept it buring all that day, and the night following spreading itself up to Grace-church-street and downwards from Cannon-street to the Water-side, as far as the Three Cranes in the Vintrey.

The people in all parts about it, distracted by the vastness of it, and their particular care to carry away their Goods, many attempts were made to prevent the spreading of it by pulling down Houses, and making great Intervals, but all in vain, the Fire seizing upon the Timber and Rubbish, and so continuing it set even through those spaces, and raging in a bright flame all Monday and Teusday, not withstanding His Majesties own, and His Royal Highness's indefatigable and personal pains to apply all possible remedies to prevent it, calling upon and helping the people with their Guards ; and a great number of Nobility and Gentry un-wearidly assisting therein, for which they were requited with a thousand blessings from the poor distressed people. By the favour of God the Wind slackened a little on Teusday night & the Flames meeting with brick buildings at the Temple, by little and little it was observed to lose its force on that side, so that on Wednesday morning we began to hope well, and his Royal Highness never despairing or slackening his personal care wrought so well that day, assisted in some parts by the Lords of the Council before and behind is that a stop was put to it at the Temple Church, neer Holborn-bridge, Pie-corner, Aldersgate, Cripple-gate, neer the lower end of Coleman-street, at the end of Basin-hall-street by the Postern at the upper end of Bishopsgate-street and Leadenhall-street, at the Standard in Cornhill at the church in Fenchurch street, neer Cloth-workers Hall in Mincing-lane, at the middle of Mark-lane, and at the Tower-dock.

On Thursday by the blessing of God it was wholly beat down and extinguished. But so as that Evening it unhappily burst out again a fresh at the Temple, by the falling of some sparks (as is supposed) upon a Pile of Wooden buildings ; but his Royal Highness who watched there that vvhole night in Person, by the great labours and diligence used, and especially by applying Powder to blow up the Houses about it, before day most happily mastered it.

Divers Strangers, Dutch and French were during the fire, apprehended, upon suspicion that they contributed mischievously to it, who are all imprisoned, and Informations prepared to make a severe inquisition here upon by my Lord Chief Justice Keeling, assisted by some of the Lords of the Privy Council ; and some principal Members of the City, notwithstanding which suspicion, the manner of the buring all along in a Train, and so blowen forwards in all its way by strong Winds, make us conclude the whole was an effect of an unhappy chance, or to speak better, the heavy hand of God upon us for our sins, shewing us the terrour of his Judgement in thus raising the Fire, and immediately after his miraculous and never to be acknowledged Mercy, in putting a stop to it when we were in the last despair, and that all attempts for quencing it however industriously pursued seemed insufficient. His Majesty then sat hourly in Councel, and ever since hath continued making rounds about the City in all parts of it where the danger and mischief was greatest, til this morning that ne hath sent his Grace the Duke of Albemarle, whom he hath called for to assist him in this great occasion, to put his happy and successful hand to the finishing this memorable deliverance.

About the Tower the seasonable orders given for plucking down the Houses to secure the Magazines of Powder was more especially successful, that part being up the Wind, notwithstanding which it came almost to the very Gates of it. So as by this early provision the general Stores of War lodged in the Tower were entirely saved: And we have further this intimate cause to give God thanks, that the Fire did not happen where his Majesties Naval Stores are kept. So as though it has pleased God to visit us with his own hand, he hath not, by disfurnishing us with the means of carrying on he War, subjected us to our enemies.

It must be observed,that this fire happened in a part of the Town, where tho the commodities were not very rich, yet they were so bulky that they could not well be removed, so that the Inhabitants of that part where it first began have sustained very great loss, but by the best enquiry we can make, the other parts of the Town where the Commodities were of greater value, took the Alarum so early, that they saved most of their goods of value; which possibly may have diminished the loss, tho some think, that if the whole industry of the Inhabitants had been applyed to the stopping of the fire, and not to the saving of their particular Goods, the success might have been much better, not only to the publick, but to many of them in their own particulars.

Through this sad Accident it is easie to be imagined how many persons were necessitated to remove themselves and Goods into the open fields, where they were forced to continue some time, which could not but work compassion in the beholders, but his Majesties care was most signal in this occasion, who besides his personal pains was frequent in consulting all wayes for relieving those distressed persons, which produced so good effect, as well as by his Majesties Proclamations and the Orders issued to the Neighbour Justices of the Peace to encourage the sending in provisions to the Markets, which are publickly known, as by other directions, that when his Majesty, fearing lest other Orders might not yet have been sufficient, had commanded the Victuailer of his Navy to send bread into Moore-fields for relief of the poor, which for the more speedy supply he sent in Bisket out of the Sea Stores ; it was found that the Markets had been already so well supplyd that the people, being un-accustomed to that kind of Bread declined it, and so it was returned in greater part to his Majestys Stores again without any use made of it.

And we cannot but observe to the confusation of all his Majesties enemies, who endeavour to perswade the world abroad of great parties, and disaffection at home against his Majesties Government ; that a greater instance of the affections of this City could never been given then hath now been given in this sad and deplorable Accident when if at any time disorder might have been expected from the losses, distraction, and almost desperation of some people in their private forture, thousands of people not having had habitations to cover them. And yet in all this time it hath been so far fromany appearance of designs or attempts against his Majesties Government, that his Majexty and his Royal Brother, out of their care to stop and prevent the fire, frequently exposing their persons with very small attendants in all parts of the Town -- sometimes even to be intermixed with those who laboured in the business, yet never the less there hath not been observed so much as a muring word to fall from any, but on the contrary, even those persons, whose losses rendered their conditions most desperate, and to be fit objects of others prayers, beholding those frequent instances of his Majesties care of his people, forgot their own misery, and filled the streets with their prayers for his Majesty, whose trouble they seemed to compassionate before their own.

13,200 Houses 
    87 Churches 
     6 Chapels 
The Royal Exchange 
The Custom House 
Jail at Newgate 
Three City gates 
The Guildhall and 
Four bridges