00:00The Great Fire of London was a violent fire that ravaged central London on Sunday
00:04September 2nd to Wednesday, September 5th, 1666.
00:07Flames ravaged the city inside the Roman wall and threatened the aristocratic district of Westminster.
00:13Whitehall Palace, residence of King Charles II, and most of the poor suburban neighborhoods, but not the
00:18reach.
00:19They burned 13,200 houses, 87 parish churches, St. Paul's Cathedral, and the majority of public buildings in the
00:26quoted.
00:26The recorded human losses are very low, but may represent only a fraction of the victims.
00:31The fire broke out shortly after midnight on September 2nd in a bakery on Pudding Lane owned by Thomas Fariné
00:37and spreads rapidly westward.
00:39The indecision of Lord Mayor Thomas Bloodworth delayed the creation of firebreaks by demolition, which was, at the time,
00:45the main firefighting technique.
00:48Large-scale demolitions are ordered during the night, but it is already too late, because the wind has
00:52had time to fan the flames.
00:54On Monday, the fire spread northwards towards the heart of the city.
00:58This day saw the emergence of rumors accusing the French and the Dutch of having started the fire, giving rise to
01:03to lynchings.
01:04It spread to most of the city during the day on Tuesday, destroying Saint Cathedral
01:09-Paul and crossing the river to threaten the court of Charles II at Whitehall.
01:12It is contained thanks to two factors: the cessation of strong easterly winds and its use by the garrison.
01:18from the Tower of London, using its gunpowder to create effective firebreaks preventing the flames from
01:22spread eastward.
01:23The economic and social consequences of the fire are overwhelming.
01:27Fearing a revolt by the disaster victims, Charles II encouraged their evacuation to other cities.
01:32Several innovative urban planning projects were proposed for the reconstruction of the city, but practical problems led to their abandonment and
01:38The plan of the old streets is largely followed for the reconstruction.
01:41In the 1660s, London was by far the largest city in Great Britain, with an estimated population of
01:47half a million inhabitants.
01:48Comparing it to the baroque magnificence of Paris, John Evelyn described it in 1659 as "an anarchic aggregate,
01:55Nordic style, wooden houses" and highlights the fire risks associated with using wood as a building material
02:01of construction and urban density.
02:03By "anarchic, unartificial," Evelyn means "unplanned, improvised," the result of sustained population growth and
02:11of unregulated urban sprawl.
02:12The city is increasingly cramped within its walls, which date back to the
02:16'Roman era.
02:17It also extended beyond the walls with the emergence of poor suburbs like Shoreditch, Holborn, and Southwark.
02:23until it encompasses the independent city of Westminster to the west, 3.
02:27At the end of the 17th century, the city proper, that is to say the area between the wall
02:32and the Thames, therefore, is now only a part of London with an area of 2.8 km² for
02:37approximately 80,000 inhabitants, or one sixth of the London population.
02:41Surrounded by a ring of suburbs where most Londoners live, the city already constitutes the economic center of
02:46the capital.
02:47It is the largest market and port in England under the hegemony of the merchant classes and
02:51industrial.
02:53The aristocracy, for its part, disdained the city, preferring to live in the countryside, beyond the suburbs, or in
02:58the Westminster district, the current West End, near Whitehall Palace and the court of Charles II.
03:03Wealthy people preferred to live away from a crowded, polluted, and unsanitary city, especially after the Great Plague.
03:09from London in 1665.
03:11At that time, relations between the city and the crown were strained.
03:15During the First Civil War, from 1642 to 1651, the City of London was a republican stronghold, and republican uprisings
03:23The events of the early 1660s reminded Charles II that his rich and dynamic capital could still constitute a
03:28threat to him.
03:29The city magistrates are from the generation that fought in the civil war and remember
03:34the national trauma caused by the absolutist pretensions of Charles I, the father of Charles II, V.
03:40That is why, when fire threatens the city, he refuses the king's assistance.
03:45Even in these critical circumstances, the idea of seeing royal troops in the city is inconceivable to them.
03:50Charles II eventually dismissed Lord Mayor Thomas Bloodworth to take matters into his own hands, but he
03:55It's already too late.
03:59Thank you for watching this video!
