Where did the Great Fire of London break out in September 1666?

The Bakery That Burned Down London

In the early hours of Sunday, 2 September 1666, a small fire broke out in a bakery on Pudding Lane in the City of London. Within four days, it had consumed around 13,200 houses, 87 parish churches, and the medieval St Paul's Cathedral. What started as a manageable kitchen accident became the most catastrophic urban fire in English history.

Thomas Farriner and the Fatal Oven

The bakery belonged to Thomas Farriner (sometimes spelled Farynor), who supplied bread to the Royal Navy. The fire most likely ignited because an oven wasn't properly extinguished before the household went to bed. Farriner himself escaped by climbing out of an upstairs window, along with most of his family. A maidservant who refused to attempt the escape became one of the fire's earliest victims.

Farriner later insisted his ovens had been properly raked out, and for years a French watchmaker named Robert Hubert falsely confessed to deliberately starting the blaze. Hubert was hanged for it in October 1666, despite considerable doubt about his guilt — he hadn't even arrived in England until after the fire began. Farriner, naturally, was keen to avoid blame.

Why Did It Spread So Quickly?

The fire turned into an inferno for several reasons stacked on top of each other. London in 1666 was a tightly packed city of timber-framed buildings, many of them centuries old and bone dry after an unusually hot summer. Narrow streets meant buildings almost touched at their upper storeys, creating natural bridges for flames to leap across.

A strong easterly wind fanned the fire westward through the city at terrifying speed. The Lord Mayor, Sir Thomas Bloodworth, famously dismissed the initial alarm — reportedly saying a woman could piss it out — and delayed ordering the demolition of buildings to create firebreaks. By the time serious action was taken, the fire was already beyond easy control.

The Scale of the Destruction

By the time the fire was finally brought under control on 5 September, it had swept through roughly 373 acres of the city. Around 100,000 people were left homeless, sheltering in fields outside the city walls. Remarkably, the official death toll was very low — fewer than a dozen confirmed fatalities — though historians suspect the true number was higher, since the deaths of poorer citizens were often not recorded.

London Rebuilt

The destruction actually gave London a rare chance to rebuild more sensibly. King Charles II pushed for wider streets and brick construction to replace the old timber warrens. Architect Christopher Wren oversaw the rebuilding of 51 churches, including the magnificent new St Paul's Cathedral, which still dominates the skyline today.

A monument to the fire was erected near Pudding Lane itself — standing 202 feet tall, which is exactly the distance from its base to the bakery where it all began.