The Great Fire of London

[Grandad]

There is a significant anniversary today being exactly 350 years to the day since The Great Fire of London started in the bakery of Thomas Farriner, in Pudding Lane, It was not declared out and under control until 3 days later on 5 September 1666.
Many thousands of homes were destroyed, plus St Pauls and 87 minor churches. As a consequence, the name Sir Christopher Wren became well known for he was responsible for the rebuild of St Pauls Cathedral as we know it today, and 50 of the destroyed churches in old London.
This followed the year of 'The Plague' in 1665, so London went through a traumatic period at that time.
An anniversary well worth remembering I think.....
On Sunday 4th September, a 120 metres long barge carrying 190 replicas of some of the buildings of the day will be located in the Thames and the models will be set on fire. The BBC will cover this event...

Here are the replicas on the barge.

[Horus]

Shame to burn all those lovely models

[LovelyLadyLux]

Very interesting. I recall from the days of my history classes hearing of the great fire but know nothing much else about it. Interesting to bring it back to life this way.

[Ruby Slippers]

Oh b******! I wrote a long post in reply and my server went down! Anyway, great photo and great subject, Grandad!

[Kiya]

Interesting, Wow! that is something to see, shame its going to go up in smoke.

[Grandad]

It must have been devastating There are only reports of a small number of deaths but that is probably unreliable because many areas were 'slums' and records and communication would have been very limited. It is estimated that around 70,000 of the 80,000 population of London lost their homes. Many moved away to the adjoining counties to start a new life.

[Grandad]

Well, they burnt the replica last evening and of all the videos on Youtube, I find this one by Al Jazeera to be the best as it includes much of presnt day London.

[Grandad]

When I heard about this commemoration I thought it sounded appropriate for the anniversary. What I didn't appreciate was the size of the replicas. This became evident in the video with people walking alongside the structures which actually appear near life size.
So I now question the incineration of thousands of feet of perfectly good timber that could have been put to better use and a smaller scale model could have been used even made of recycled paper products..

[Kiya]

Wow! just looked at your link Grandad, what a waste to go up in smoke when I think of the folk with their skills making these models