Great Fire of London

You are approaching the site where the catastrophic Great Fire of London ignited shortly after midnight on September 2, 1666. It began in the bakery of Thomas Farriner on Pudding Lane. Farriner served as the King's baker, producing hard-baked ship biscuits for the Royal Navy. While he insisted his oven was properly extinguished, a stray spark likely ignited a nearby pile of firewood in the early morning hours. By one in the morning, the house was consumed by flames, setting off a chain reaction that would eventually destroy more than eighty percent of the city.