Tudors History Great Fire of London

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The Great Fire of London 1666

School Workshops for significant events beyond living memory

On the 2nd of September 1666, deep in the heart of the Tudor city of London, a fire broke out in a bakery shop on Pudding Lane. This event is remembered to this day as The Great Fire of London. For several days, the fire grew and swept across the city, causing a huge amount of damage. While only a few deaths are thought to have resulted, the destruction of buildings was extensive, with many thousands of houses and dwellings reduced to ashes, and as many as 86 parish churches destroyed.

The Great Fire of London was one of the most significant events beyond living memory to take place in our country's history. The fire took place in a cramped, disorganised, organic city of over three hundred thousand people. A city still recovering from The Great Plague of 1665. Fire-fighting wasn't the highly trained and skilled occupation we have today and efforts to extinguish the fire were frustrated by high winds, people fleeing, and the authorities not taking the situation seriously enough in the early stages.

Study the Great Fire with your class in a number of different ways:

• Learn the key events and dates
• Discover how The Great Fire of London started
• Meet Thomas Farriner the baker and other important people
• Discuss why it spread so quickly through the city
• Learn about significant buildings that were affected by the fire
• Find out about the attempts and methods used to tackle the blaze
• Hear reactions from Samuel Pepys
• Think about how Londoners reacted to the fire
• How London changed to ensure the fire could never happen again

The fire was first discovered by Thomas Farriner in his bakery shop in Pudding Lane. Amazingly, he survived the fire by escaping through an upstairs window, but other people were less fortunate. Our workshops will discuss how the fire was able to spread and how the people in charge of fighting the fire, despire working together to try to save their neighbourhoods, were frustrated by lack of water and the technology available to them.

The fire was able to spread due to the overcrowded conditions in this part of London, and because popular building materials of wood and thatch were incredible flammable. As the fire developed over the following days, your children will learn how the King was involved, who was in charge of organising the response, and how rumour and blame spread every bit as fast as the fire itself!

Once the fire was extinguished thoughts turned to rebuilding the capital city. Children will learn about important characters like Christopher Wren and Robert Hooke, who brought ideas on how the development should take place. An Act of Parliament was passed a few years later and work began. This fascinating historical example of a world city being taken back to the drawing board can draw parallels with the development of other world cities, including themes such as urban planning.

Great Fire Workshops

We feature several workshops that focus on the Great Fire, each with their own unique way of delivering this fascinating event in a fun and engaging way. You can have an actor tell a first person account of their terrifying experience, or get your children involved in a series of activities and games that use problem-solving and teamwork, either to prevent the fire or to help rebuild the city.

These workshops can help you look back at the physical changes to a big area of central London, brought about by the Great Fire. How those changes affected the way people lived and worked in the area. Children will learn the historical context of the Great Fire of London, following the plague. And explore the cultural impact that still reverberates all these years later.

Why not link a Great Fire of London workshop to your curriculum topics in History, Events Beyond Living Memory, English creative writing, Citizenship and more.