Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
See the Tate Modern Tour chapter.
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Bankside—maybe at The Founder's Arms pub along the river—is a great place to con-
template the...
Great Fire of 1666
On Sunday, September 2, 1666, stunned Londoners quietly sipped beers in Bankside pubs
and watched The City across the river go up in flames. (“When we could endure no more
upon the water,” wrote Samuel Pepys in his diary, “we went to a little alehouse on the
Bankside.”) Started in a bakery shop near the Monument (north end of London Bridge) and
fanned by strong winds, the fire swept westward, engulfing the mostly wooden city, de-
vouring Old St. Paul's, and moving past what is now Blackfriars Bridge and St. Bride's to
Temple Church (near the pointy, black, gold-tipped steeple of the Royal Courts of Justice).
In four days, 80 percent of The City was incinerated, including 13,000 houses and 89
churches. The good news? Incredibly, only nine people died, the fire cleansed a plague-
infested city, and Christopher Wren was around to rebuild London's skyline.
