# The Great Fire Of London

> Sunday 2 September 1666, 1am, Pudding Lane. A baker's oven left smouldering. By Thursday, over 13,000 houses and 87 parish churches gone, 80% of the walled City destroyed.

- **Canonical URL:** https://skemr.com/experience/great-fire-of-london
- **Category:** History
- **Curated by:** SKEMR AI
- **Contents:** 4 journeys, 8 chapters, 23 sources
- **Last updated:** 2026-10-06

## What this is

A curated transmedia experience: existing web sources selected and ordered by an editor. SKEMR does not host the underlying content — each item links to its original publisher. Journeys are alternative routes through the same material.

## Journeys

### For Young Historians
Built around the BBC's own KS1 history series : what happened, in plain terms, without losing the real story.

- Steps: 8
- Machine-readable: https://skemr.com/api/ai-context/great-fire-of-london/journeys/j-kids
- Briefing for a chat: https://skemr.com/api/ai-context/great-fire-of-london/journeys/j-kids/briefing.md

### The Full Story
For general readers : the fire from start to rebuild, drawn from museums, official heritage bodies, and broadcast documentary sources.

- Steps: 17
- Machine-readable: https://skemr.com/api/ai-context/great-fire-of-london/journeys/j-general
- Briefing for a chat: https://skemr.com/api/ai-context/great-fire-of-london/journeys/j-general/briefing.md

### For Historians: Evidence & Controversy
The primary-source path : contemporary documents, the real historiographical arguments over the death toll and the arson theories, and the formal heritage record.

- Steps: 16
- Machine-readable: https://skemr.com/api/ai-context/great-fire-of-london/journeys/j-historian
- Briefing for a chat: https://skemr.com/api/ai-context/great-fire-of-london/journeys/j-historian/briefing.md

### Every Source
All 23 instances : every source used to build this experience, start to finish.

- Steps: 23
- Machine-readable: https://skemr.com/api/ai-context/great-fire-of-london/journeys/j-full
- Briefing for a chat: https://skemr.com/api/ai-context/great-fire-of-london/journeys/j-full/briefing.md

## Chapters

- **London Before The Fire** — A medieval timber-framed city, streets so narrow the upper floors almost touched. Just recovered from plague (1665, 100,000 dead). A hot, dry summer. A tinderbox.
- **Pudding Lane : Thomas Farriner's Bakery** — Baker to the King's navy. Sunday night, 1am, 2 September 1666. An oven not properly extinguished, sparks catching the woodpile next door. By dawn, 300 houses burning.
- **Pepys's Diary : A Day-By-Day Account** — Samuel Pepys, Navy clerk, wakes Sunday, sees the glow, climbs the Tower of London for the view. Buries his Parmesan cheese and wine, and convinces the King to demolish houses to make firebreaks.
- **Four Days Of Inferno** — An easterly wind pushes flames west. St Paul's Cathedral, full of refugees' belongings, catches and burns spectacularly : lead from the roof runs molten in the streets. The fire stops Wednesday night when the wind finally drops.
- **The Aftermath : Officially 6 Dead** — Over 13,000 houses, 87 churches, and 44 livery halls destroyed. 80% of the City gone. Around 70,000 of 80,000 residents homeless. Officially 6 dead : historians still argue about whether that number can possibly be true.
- **Hubert The Scapegoat** — French watchmaker Robert Hubert confesses to starting the fire. Almost certainly false : he wasn't even in London until two days after it started, and the bakery had no windows for the 'grenade' he claimed to have thrown. Hanged anyway, 27 October 1666.
- **Wren Rebuilds : Brick And Stone** — Christopher Wren submits a radical rebuild plan with grand boulevards; rejected as too expensive and disruptive to property rights. The City is rebuilt on its old street plan but in brick and stone, with Wren designing 51 new churches, including St Paul's (1675:1710).
- **Visit Today : The Monument** — Wren and Hooke's 202-ft Doric column (1677), placed exactly 202 ft from where the fire started on Pudding Lane. 311 steps to a viewing platform above the rebuilt City.

## Sources

- [Great Fire of London](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Fire_of_London): The reference overview: causes, course, and consequences of the fire.
- [Samuel Pepys](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Pepys): The diarist's own reference page : a supplementary look at the man behind history's most famous eyewitness account of the fire.
- [Robert Hubert](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Hubert): The full, documented story of the Frenchman hanged for a fire he could not have started : he hadn't even arrived in England until two days after it began.
- [Christopher Wren](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Wren): The architect's own reference page : a supplementary look at the man, not just the rebuild.
- [The Great Fire of London](https://www.londonmuseum.org.uk/collections/london-stories/great-fire-of-london/): London Museum's own collection page : real artefacts recovered from the fire layer, including a floor tile from a Pudding Lane shop and glass sealed by debris.
- [A history of St Paul's Cathedral](https://www.londonmuseum.org.uk/collections/london-stories/a-history-of-st-pauls-cathedral/): London Museum's own account of Wren's cathedral, built over 35 years to replace the one lost in the fire.
- [The Great Fire of London, Episode 1 \| History KS1 \| BBC Teach](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSH81jl-uAk): BBC Teach's own KS1 history series : how and where the fire actually started, told simply and accurately for young learners.
- [How Did The Great Fire of London Start?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuTamHKt318): Channel 5's own documentary segment on the fire's origin, for a general audience.
- [The Great Fire of London, Episode 3 \| History KS1 \| BBC Teach](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQP_FQ4d6wo): BBC Teach's own KS1 episode on rebuilding London after the fire.
- [Fire caused by fire balls thrown in Pudding Lane?](https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/great-fire-of-london-examine-the-evidence/fire-caused-by-fire-balls-thrown-in-pudding-lane/): A primary-source document examining one of the period's own rumours about how the fire started : part of the National Archives' 'Examine the Evidence' collection.
- ['A true relation' of the 'sad and deplorable Fire'](https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/great-fire-of-london-examine-the-evidence/a-true-relation-of-the-sad-and-deplorable-fire/): A genuine contemporary eyewitness broadside describing the fire as it happened, held by the National Archives.
- [Help the poor affected by fire](https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/great-fire-of-london-examine-the-evidence/help-the-poor-affected-by-fire/): A primary-source document on the relief effort for the roughly 70,000 people left homeless.
- [Great Fire of London: Examine the evidence](https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/great-fire-of-london-examine-the-evidence/): The National Archives' own curated primary-source collection, built around one real question: was the fire caused by 'treachery or chance', or 'heavy judgement'? The framing this scene's other Archives documents are drawn from.
- [A plot to 'fire' other cities?](https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/great-fire-of-london-examine-the-evidence/a-plot-to-fire-other-cities/): One specific document from the Archives' evidence collection, examining the period's xenophobic conspiracy theories about a foreign plot : a single exhibit that only makes sense as part of the wider 'examine the evidence' investigation it's drawn from.
- [Fire caused by 'our sin'](https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/great-fire-of-london-examine-the-evidence/fire-caused-by-our-sin/): A primary-source document on the religious interpretation many contemporaries gave the fire : divine punishment, not arson.
- [Sunday 2 September 1666](https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1666/09/02/): Pepys's actual diary entry for the day the fire began, on the free annotated online edition.
- [The Great Fire of London and the Tower](https://www.hrp.org.uk/blog/the-great-fire-of-london-and-the-tower/): Historic Royal Palaces' own account of the Tower of London during the fire : the vantage point Pepys climbed, and the gunpowder firebreak that saved it.
- [The Great Fire of London](https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/royal-history/great-fire-london): Royal Museums Greenwich's own narrative account of the four days of the fire.
- [The Great Fire of London](https://www.london-fire.gov.uk/museum/history-and-stories/the-great-fire-of-london): The London Fire Brigade's own museum account : how a city with no organised fire service actually tried to fight the blaze.
- [Is It True That Only Six People Died In The Great Fire?](https://londonist.com/2016/08/is-it-true-that-only-six-people-died-in-the-great-fire): A dedicated investigation into the official death toll : why historians think it's almost certainly an undercount, and why we'll never know the real number.
- [History](https://www.themonument.org.uk/history): The Monument's own official history page : owned, funded, and managed by the City of London.
- [The Monument : List Entry](https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1193901): The Monument's official Grade I listing record : a formal companion to the fuller history page, confirming its protected status.
- [Pudding Lane & The Monument](https://www.google.com/maps/place/Pudding+Lane,+London/): Where it all started, and where you can go to see it commemorated today.

## Attribution

Curated by SKEMR. The underlying content belongs to the linked publishers. Please cite the source URLs rather than SKEMR for factual claims.