| | On the 2nd of September 1666 the Great Fire of London started in Pudding Lane. It swept through the central parts of London from Sunday, 2 September to Wednesday, 5 September 1666 and was one of the major events in the history of England. The fire gutted the medieval City of London inside the old Roman City Wall. It threatened, but did not reach, the aristocratic district of Westminster, the modern West End, Charles II's Palace of Whitehall, and most of the suburban slums. It consumed 13,200 houses, 87 parish churches, St. Paul's Cathedral, and most of the buildings of the City authorities. It is estimated that it destroyed the homes of 70,000 of the City's 80,000 inhabitants. The fire started at the bakery of Thomas Farriner on Pudding Lane shortly after midnight on Sunday, 2 September, and it spread rapidly around London. |
| This was a year after the Great Plague 1665-1666 which had killed 75,000 to 100,000 people, up to a fifth of London's population. The disease, known as the bubonic plague, was transmitted by rats.
After the fire, London was rebuilt on an urban plan originally drafted by architect Christopher Wren which included widened streets, reduced congestion and basic sewage-drainage systems, due to the idea that rats caused and spread the plague. A Monument to the Great Fire of London, designed by Christopher Wren and Robert Hooke, was erected near Pudding Lane after the fire. Standing 61 metres tall and known simply as "The Monument", it is a familiar London landmark which has given its name to a tube station.
People who live in the East end of London are called cockneys and they use a form of rhyming slang in their speech. They might say "A man in the rub a dub dub is drinking his far and near." What they mean is "A man in the pub is drinking his beer".
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