Up next in 10
The tale of the Monument and the Great Fire of London | History of the City
6K views
Oct 7, 2024
The Monument stands in the heart of the City of London. Standing over 200 feet tall, the Monument commemorates one of the worst travesties in London’s history: the Great Fire of London in 1666. The fire began in Thomas Farriner’s bakery in Pudding Lane on 2nd September 1666. The fires in Farriner’s ovens were not properly extinguished, creating sparks which then set the house on fire. Join City AM as we explore the fire, the Monument itself and some of the stories that surround this famous building, thanks to @City-Bridge-Foundation. Click for more information about the History of the City 👇 https://www.cityam.com/history-of-the-city-the-monument-and-the-great-fire-of-london/ 🌐 www.cityam.com X(formerly Twitter): http://twitter.com/CityAM Facebook: www.facebook.com/cityam Instagram: www.instagram.com/city_am LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/cityam Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/philip-anderson/achievement License code: CCGKGSFCPV87S4TI Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/hartzmann/no-time-to-die License code: TDPV8TBDPAYWOOTO Produced by: Emmanuel Nwosu, Christopher Dorrell, Joe Lee, Joseph Curay Teneda
View Video Transcript
0:00
The monument stands in the heart of the city of London
0:08
Standing at over 200 feet tall, the monument commemorates one of worst travesties in London's history
0:13
the Great Fire in 1666. Join City AM as we explored the fire, the monument itself
0:19
and some of the stories that surround this famous building. The fire began in Thomas Farrener's bakery in putting lane on 2nd of September
0:29
1666. The fires in Fariner's ovens were not properly extinguished, creating sparks which
0:36
set the house on fire. Given how compact the city was, and the fact that most houses were made
0:41
out of wood, fires were quite common. So common, in fact, that the celebrated courtier and diarist
0:47
Samuel Pepys recorded that he woke up on the night of the fire, but thought it far enough off
0:52
and so went to bed again and to sleep. The fire was only a street away. The hot summer dry buildings
0:59
and a strong westerly wind meant the fire spread quickly through the city
1:02
despite the attempts of the inhabitants to create fire blocks by blowing up rows of building in the fire's path
1:09
By the time the fire had been tamed some five days later, a third of all buildings in the city had been destroyed
1:15
including 86% of a square mile itself. 130,000 people were made homeless by the fire
1:24
The fire came just one year after the Great Plague of 1665
1:27
and at a time when England was at war with the Dutch. In the febrile atmosphere of the time
1:33
many Londoners thought they were being punished by God. Punished for what, you may ask
1:38
Well, the fire started on putting lane and finished at Pie Corner
1:42
leading some to think Londoners were being punished for the sin of gluttony. Even still, you can see a chubby little boy on Pie Corner
1:49
put up in the late 17th century to mark the point where the fire ended
1:53
Underneath the statue, the inscription reads, this boy is in memory put up for the late fire of London
1:58
occasioned by the sin of gluttony. But there were other more harmful theories
2:04
England was still in the grip of fervent religious debate. Within living memory, the nation had torn itself apart in the civil war
2:10
fought largely for religious reasons. By 1666, England was fervently Protestant, and many English people were scared that saboteurs
2:18
from Europe's great Catholic powers had infiltrated London. Inscriptions on the monument itself added after the structure was
2:25
built would blame the Catholics for the fire. Burning of this Protestant city, begun and carried on
2:31
by the treachery and malice of a popish faction. Just six people are thought to have died as a direct
2:36
result of the fire. This figure is likely far too low. The fire was so hot that it was capable of
2:42
incinerating a body, leaving no remains. A number of foreigners were also lynched in the chaos of the fire
2:49
Shortly after it finished, Robert Hubert, a French watchmaker, was put on trial and executed
2:55
after he admitted starting the fire. There was only one problem. He was not even in the country at the time
3:01
The fire was not about gluttony, and it was not a Catholic conspiracy. It was bad luck
3:07
London emerged rapidly from the ashes of the fire. Christopher Wren was appointed Commissioner
3:12
for the rebuilding of the city of London with help from surveyors, including Robert Hook
3:16
Wren produced ambitious plans to rebuild the entire area along classical lines
3:21
These plans were mostly rejected by property owners who insisted on keeping the site surveyor
3:25
destroyed buildings One thing London did need was a monument to commemorate the event and so the monument we see before us today was born It was built between 1671 and 1677 just over 200 feet away from
3:38
the site of the bakery where the fire started. Let's go in, yes. And gate is always a little bit
3:47
tricky. Yeah, very... My yourself. One of the reasons it took so long to build
3:58
was due to the difficulty of obtaining enough Portland stone quarried from the Isle of Portland on the south coast of England
4:04
It was difficult to transport the stone because the country, once again, was at war with the Dutch
4:09
between 1672 and 1674. Okay, so should we climb up the stack
4:16
Oh yes, you're ready? Yeah, I think so. Got my rink and boots. Do you want to know how many steps are there
4:20
Yes, please. We're going to go up, 311 steps, although it's in a very top platform
4:26
all right shall we yeah okay we will run out of breath in a minute as well yeah there's a long way left
4:33
to go didn't work so big from the outside yeah and the good thing about the stairs which i love
4:44
thinking about it is that amount of people that came up in the same steps as us yeah you know
4:50
Christopher Wrenn, Robert Hook, Isaac Newton. These stairs are the original? The stairs are original
4:59
The steps are a refurbishing. We took a really big project in 2007
5:08
finished in 2009, because Portland is easily aware of hope. So the steps were all bending
5:17
a little bit dangerous. But those black stones, are absolutely perfect for here
5:24
Inside the monument, one can see marks left by some of the people who contributed to the building's construction
5:29
They are one of my favorite features in the monument. I know it's a bad thing to say
5:34
Graffiti is not a good thing. Don't do it, guys. Not in public buildings
5:38
But they are quite special the ones in the monument because clearly they took the time
5:43
And they always put dates as well. So 1794, this one, we have, I think the oldest one
5:50
1676, just a year before the monument was opened to the public
5:54
Oh, yeah, I would blame one of the stoneworkers. This is the best time, because this is when you finally realize why it's so great coming up here
6:09
Look at this view. Wow. Views all over the city. It's magnificent, isn't it
6:15
Yeah. Oh, Tower Bridge that's where we were last week. There we go
6:18
Yeah. The thing with the monument is that the city has amazing skyscrapers to visit, to see
6:26
But that's just something about being the top of the monument. That means absolutely special
6:31
Yeah. Well, this would have been here 200, 300 years ago. 350 years
6:36
Yeah. And when they were rebuilding the city, did they rebuild it as it had been before the fire
6:45
I would say the plan was to be very different. The plan was to have, it was almost like Rome with piazzas and then the streets coming out of piazzas
6:54
Unfortunately it didn quite work that way because we are very set in our ways aren we Yeah And so they build almost to what was before
7:07
Of course, some streets couldn't quite make it to the plants, and some streets have to be implemented to the plants
7:14
So not many things have been new in the city. Yeah. But most of the streets that we see now existed here
7:21
Pudding Lane being one of them, Fish Street Hill, that's the one that we're standing
7:26
you know, a great church street and so on. So London was rebuilt quite fast, actually, to, to, since the, well, after the great fire
7:36
they clear up really quickly, they rebuilt really fast. It was an amazing achievement, to be honest
7:41
You know, they had no time to sleep, basically. And one of the stories that you're often told is that all the rats were killed in the fire
7:48
and this is why the plague never came back. Is there any truth to that
7:53
Well, I wish it was. When I moved to London about 20 years ago, I found that was definitely not the truth
8:02
Because if you go in any London underground, you still can find some friendly rats around
8:07
But I think in a way it was like a desire to stop the plague
8:11
The plague did stop after. It wasn't completely gone, but the worst was finished
8:20
But that's the problem with the Great Fire, because there wasn't enough people in the city to help extinguish the fire
8:25
Everybody flew off the city because of the plague was going on
8:29
Nobody wants to stay around. So it was difficult to put the fire out because there was no many people around
8:34
Yeah. It was a bad run of luck, wasn't it, with a plague? Plague war, the weather, the wind, everything together
8:46
The monument didn't just exist to commemorate the fire. Renan Hook were leading scientists of the age
8:54
I never let a good opportunity go to waste. So they turned the monument into an observatory too
9:00
This is a one-in-life time experience, just saying. Yeah. All right, this is not the most glamorous to go down
9:13
So you need to go backwards, nail, and then you go down. Find your space
9:19
And then... And then... Okay, so we're now in the basement
9:30
Yes. What did they do down here? Well, experiments. I think because Robert Hook was so..
9:38
He was the head of experiments for the Royal Society. He kind of had to pretty much test every experiment that was sent to the society
9:46
And he's on. He was very adventurous, I would say. I think building something like this, in the base of the monument
9:52
was a way to have... His lab should test his idea, and the shape is very interesting
10:00
The monument spiral staircase means there's a direct view from the underground laboratory at the bottom
10:05
all the way to the urn at the top, which can open, giving a clear view out into the night sky
10:11
This turned the monument into a giant Zenith telescope, pointing directly at the stars
10:16
to allow the accurate measurement of celestial movements, or so they hoped
10:21
For all their intelligence, Renan Hook hadn't noticed that they built the monster. monument next to one of London busiest streets Fish Street Hill which ran down to the Old London Bridge and would have been rampacked full of carts transporting goods to and from the river Unfortunately this meant the monument was never successful in its scientific endeavours as the movement of the column either from the wind
10:43
or traffic vibrations, made it unsuitable. At the base of the monument is a freeze giving an allegorical representation of the rebirth
10:54
of London after the fire. The freeze's sculptor was Kairoskaest, Gabriel Sibba, who moved to London in the 1650s
11:02
After setting up his workshop, Sibber quickly racked up gambling debts and was sent to prison
11:07
Over the six years it took to build the monument, Sibyl was released during the day to work on its best reliefs
11:13
but had to return to prison at night. And you see lots of things happening
11:17
So if you stand back a little bit, I'll point you of some amazing features
11:22
If you think of the whole thing and it divided in half, in the background, you have London burning
11:27
Can you see? Yeah, lots of flames. Yeah. On the right side, you have the construction of London
11:33
Oh, yeah. All the stone makes, everything is stone. Yeah. Make sure, you know, everything is stone made
11:39
And then, of course, all the figures. The top, the two ladies, that's plenty and peaceful
11:44
Make sure that you know what's going to go in the city. But then you have London
11:49
London is represented by this very sad woman. She's like, she's being haired
11:53
Yeah, long hair, beautiful body, holding this sort of sense. on poles. She's sitting in the crumbles of the city of London because the dragon represents
12:02
the city for centuries. Then she's being held by two essential people. One is Father Thames
12:08
That represents time. Yeah. So the time will bring London back, but also industry will bring
12:14
London back. So the lady helping her up as well. She is industry. And when she's holding something
12:21
It's Cadizus, which represents industry and rebuild. Then you have the king himself
12:27
Looking super Roman-like. Yeah. Beautiful wig and his Roman outfit. The sandals are my favourite
12:35
He's holding the plans of the new city of London. Plans draw by Christopher Wren
12:39
Yeah. He's touching architecture. She's holding a square and a compass. Yeah
12:45
And her hand. Followed by liberty and imagination. Imagination has those little kids running around in her hat
12:53
And you have to have imagination to rebuild the whole new city
12:57
You have to have essential things, you know. I thought it was a crown, but they're little kids
13:01
The little kids running around her head. Underneath them, envy. Envy. Envy eating a heart
13:09
Not everybody was fan of London and fan of King Charles at the time
13:13
So we have envy that they're standing in envy. They don't care for it. Yeah
13:17
They want things better to come to the city. And I think it's an amazing sculpture in the city
13:23
It's so much to see. Yeah, you can look at it for ages. Yeah. And once you understand, you're like, oh, that makes sense
13:30
There is no better place to understand the story of the Great Fire and its importance to London than the monument
13:36
It represents the city's resilience in the face of catastrophe, as well as its creativity and beauty
13:42
But the structure, like the fire itself, also reveals the darker aspects of human nature
13:48
The monument reminds Londoners that they must always be on guard against fear and suspicion
13:52
to allow the city to thrive. If you've enjoyed this episode, then do go and have a look at our other episode about Tower Bridge