The Great Fire of London

In September 1666 the City of London was almost destroyed by what became known as The Great Fire. The fire started in Pudding Lane and this programme was recorded there with the help of James Clare who is the Historic Buildings Architect for the City of London. 

In the programme we discover more about the fire, its effects and the rebuilding of London after it. Before you listen to the programme, look at these comprehension questions. You'll hear the answers during the programme. Test your understanding by trying the questions in the 'Extras' section below. You can also download the programme and the transcript. 

According to the information in the programme: 
1: How did the fire start? 
2: What made the fire take hold so strongly and make it difficult to fight? 
3: How long did the fire burn for? 
4: What happened to the population who weren't wealthy? 
5: How many homes were destroyed? 
6: What happened to the City after the fire? 

Vocabulary on the topic of fire 

to fan the flames 
to make a fire stronger by providing a moving source of air, for example, wind 

a blaze 
a dramatic word for a fire which causes damage 

a conflagration 
a large destructive fire 

to extinguish a fire 
to stop a fire from burning 

to put out a fire 
a phrasal verb with the same meaning as 'to extinguish a fire' 

the fire brigade 
the emergency service whose job is to put out fires 

a fire extinguisher 
a device which contains water, foam, carbon dioxide or other substance which is used to put out fires 

a fire break 
an area which is cleared of things that can burn to stop a fire from spreading 

an arsonist 
a person who deliberately starts a fire for criminal reasons 

Programme script (pdf - 21k) 
Download this programme (mp3 - 1.7mb)

You can find the original BBC page here

Transcript:

Callum: Hello, I'm Callum Robertson and this is London Life. I'm not in the comfort of the studio today, as you might be able to hear, I'm out and about in London. To be exact I'm in a street called Pudding Lane. And it was here in this street that 440 years ago, in September 1666, the Great Fire of London began.

To tell us a bit more about the fire and this particular location, I've been joined by James Clare who is the Historic Buildings Architect for the City of London. James, 440 years ago at the time of the Great Fire, what was London like?

James: London was a very large medieval city, one of the major cities in Europe and it was full of timber buildings which were a great fire hazard. The streets were very narrow, there were courtyards which were very cramped, the houses were sub-divided and multi-occupied by people, families and people.

Callum: The houses being made of wood and the streets being very narrow, there was a real danger of fire throughout London. And we're here in Pudding Lane where the fire started. What do we know of how it started?

James: It started in the premises of a baker and it started very early in the morning and so it could have been an accident from his domestic fireplaces or a candle or an oil lamp or it could have been his ovens for baking which maybe overheated.

But certainly there was a fire there and it started fairly slowly but once it caught hold, it was very rapid in spreading to adjacent premises.

Callum: And I suppose because the streets were so narrow and the buildings were made of wood it was really a disaster waiting to happen.

James: Absolutely. There were fires every so often but none were as great as this.

Compared to earlier fires it took hold and it was fanned by a very strong wind from the east which pushed the fire across the city towards the west and there was very little, if anything, that people could do to fight the fire at that time although efforts were made to.

Callum: And how long did the fire last?

James: It lasted between four and five days although it continued to smoulder, the debris continued to smoulder for many days after that.

Callum: How did the fire finally come to an end? Did it burn itself out?

James: It certainly had burnt so much of the city that there was relatively little left to burn. However the fire-breaks did help, the demolition of buildings, indeed blowing some buildings up. But the most significant factor was that the wind dropped and this allowed the people trying to fight the fire to finally overcome it.

Callum: What were the effects of the fire?

James: There were enormous numbers of homeless people. The wealthy had been able to move out to the countryside or occupy institutional buildings but the main population had had to flee to open fields such as Moorgate and camp under canvas if they were lucky.

Callum: What was the extent of the destruction of the City of London?

James: St Paul's Cathedral went on fire, the old St. Paul's Cathedral. There were some

13 or 14 thousand houses burnt out. 87 churches were destroyed and very many businesses.

Callum: Was there any good news to come out of the destruction of the City of London at that time?

James: Well, I guess the good news was they were able to recover in a remarkably quick period of time.

Callum: It still seems to be a rather higgledy-piggledy arrangement of narrow streets.

You would have thought that they might have used this as an opportunity to lay the city out in a more modern way with city blocks and so on.

James: There were great ambitions on the part of both the City and more importantly the Crown and government to radically change the design of the city along modern design principles as had been developed in Europe. This involved broad avenues with beautiful buildings lining the avenues. But the reality was that there were hundreds and thousands of owners of the old buildings and they wanted to rebuild their properties as quickly as possible and it was an impossible task for the city authorities to simply take over all that land and impose a new street layout. Although they did manage to widen a modest number of strategic streets, such as Cheapside.

Callum: So in a sense London became a modern city with a mediaeval layout?

James: Yes that's right. If you walk the City today it's still very much the mediaeval street pattern and that's one of the features of the city of London which distinguishes it from other cities. It has that character.

Callum: James Clare, thank you very much.

James: Thank you very much Callum.

Callum: Well that's all from this special edition of London Life from Pudding Lane

Task 1

Please fill the blanks with a preposition in or at.

Hello, I'm Callum Robertson and this is London Life. I'm not ___the comfort of the studio today, as you might be able to hear, I'm out and about ___ London. To be exact I'm ___a street called Pudding Lane. And it was here ___this street that 440 years ago, in September 1666, the Great Fire of London began.

To tell us a bit more about the fire and this particular location, I've been joined by James Clare who is the Historic Buildings Architect for the City of London. James, 440 years ago __ the time of the Great Fire, what was London like?

Task 2

1: How did the fire start? 
2: What made the fire take hold so strongly and make it difficult to fight? 
3: How long did the fire burn for? 
4: What happened to the population who weren't wealthy? 
5: How many homes were destroyed? 
6: What happened to the City after the fire?

Are these answers true or false?  

1: The fire started in the premises of a butcher and it started at night.

2: Compared to earlier fires it took hold so strongly because it was fanned by a very strong wind from the east.

3: It lasted between two and three days.

4: The population who weren’t wealthy had to flee to churches and public buildings.

5: There were some 13 or 14 thousand houses burnt out.

6: After the fire, they changed the design of the city and built broad avenues with beautiful buildings.

Correct answers are in the script :-)