Great Fire of London
- When
- 1666–1668
- Where
- Pudding Lane, City of London; City of London; London
- Episodes
- 4
The Great Fire of London began in a Pudding Lane bakery on 2 September 1666 and burned until 5 September, gutting the medieval City. The disaster followed the 1665 plague and prompted immediate legislative and regulatory responses to manage rebuilding and prevent future fires.
Episodes
- Legislative Response
The Rebuilding of London Act 1666 banned wood exteriors and set a three-year rebuilding period.
- Fire Ignition
Fire starts at Farriner's bakery in Pudding Lane shortly after midnight on 2 September 1666.
- Fire Duration
The fire burned from 2 to 5 September 1666, destroying the medieval City and extending west.
- Fire Court Establishment
A special Fire Court was set up from February 1667 to resolve tenant-landlord disputes.
Background and detail
Ignition and Spread. Shortly after midnight on Sunday, 2 September 1666, a fire broke out at Thomas Farriner's bakery in Pudding Lane. It spread rapidly, gutting the medieval City of London inside the old Roman wall and extending westward past the wall. The fire continued until Wednesday, 5 September.
People involved
- Thomas Farriner · Baker whose bakery was the fire's origin
- Samuel Pepys · Witness who inspected the destruction and reported to the King
Sources
- Great Fire of London Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-23
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.