Great Fire of London: Examine the evidence

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Teachers' notes

Use this collection of original documents for teaching: 

• GCSE units for AQA GCSE Restoration England,1660–1685.  
• A level AQA GCE. Monarchy restored and restrained: Britain, 1649–1702. 
• A level Edexcel GCE Britain, 1625–1701: conflict, revolution, and settlement 
• A level OCR GCE: The Execution of Charles I and the Interregnum 1646–1660: The Restoration of Charles II. 
• Key Stage 3 topic: The Restoration, ‘Glorious Revolution’ and power of Parliament.
• Primary schools: The National Curriculum theme: ‘Events beyond living memory’ topic The Great Fire of London, or for Charles II within the ‘Significant People’ theme. 

This curated collection can be used to help students develop their own historical enquiries as well as to prepare and practice source-based exam questions. The collection includes a range of sources to encourage them to think more broadly about the reign of Charles II beyond the Great Fire. Teachers have the flexibility to download all documents and transcripts and simplified transcripts to create their own resources. Teachers may also prefer to use document extracts if the sources appear too long.   

With each document we have provided a caption about the content and 3-4 suggested prompt questions. We hope this will allow students to work independently if wished on any document, or within small class discussion groups, or to assist teachers in the development of their own questions. We hope too, that exposure to original source material may also foster further document research.  

Suggested Starter Activity

Aim: Familiarise learners with the types of sources contained in the collection. 

15 minutes 

• Make a list of the different types of sources students can see [maps, proclamations, letters, diary extracts, broadsides, ‘Gazette’ paper, photographs; illustrations] in the whole collection.  
• Explain the differences between these source types.  
• Watch video ‘Spotlight On: Charles II and the Restoration’ to understand more about this collection, as many of documents here come from The National Archives’ collection of State Papers. This explains why many of the document references start with ‘SP’. The video shows what type of information is held for the early modern period of the State Papers before the government departments of Foreign Office and Home Office were created, and why The National Archives has these records. 

Having had this initial introduction through the starter, students can examine individual sources more closely. Students can briefly work out what is being said (use a transcript if necessary) and how is it being said. Use the document prompt questions to promote discussion of the content. Encourage them to ‘look behind the source’. Where has the record come from and why has it been created? Does it offer a national or local perspective?  If the source is an image or illustration, what factors need to be considered? Encourage students to consider both the ‘witting’ and ‘unwitting’ testimony a source may reveal.  Part of this evaluation is to consider if there are any gaps in the evidence. Why would we trust/not trust this source? What other sources might be needed to provide additional information/context? Does the document support other knowledge that you already have for a certain line of enquiry?  

Here are some general questions to help analyse, evaluate, and understand the documents to develop interpretations and draw conclusions. Teachers may wish to print out them for discussion prior looking at the collection. 

• What is the date of the source? 
• Who wrote/created it? 
• Do you know anything about the author? 
• What type of source is it? (Letter, proclamation, broadside, illustration, map, photograph) 
• What is the source saying/showing? 
• Check the meaning of any words you are unsure about. Use the transcripts. 
• How useful is this information, does it support what you know already? 
• Does the document show the writer’s opinions/values? 
• Why was the document created? 
• Does it have any limitations or gaps? 
• Does it share the same ideas, attitudes, and arguments with other sources in this group? 

Suggested enquiry questions using documents in this themed collection:

Ensure that students refer to specific named documents as part of any of these enquiries. Break the class up into groups and get students to feedback and/or annotate on a white board which sources could be relevant to any of these suggested enquiries: 

1. For what reasons was London a fire risk? 
2. Use Wenceslaus Hollar’s map and diary extracts from Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn to plot the course of the fire. 
3. How did the king and authorities fight the fire? 
4. How were the causes of the fire explained by people at the time, ‘treachery or chance’ or ‘heavy judgement’? Explore sources that point to: Dutch/French involvement; God’s judgement; fireballs/arson; chance; Catholics; religious sects: Anabaptists; Quakers; or strangers. 
5. What was the impact of the fire on trade and commerce in the short and long term? 
6. Discuss the language used in some sources to describe the fire, what are the similarities and differences? 
7. What do the documents reveal about religion and religious tolerance in Restoration England? 
8. How and why did Charles II use royal proclamations to help him govern? 
9. Select THREE sources that you have found most interesting/shocking/surprising and compare with a partner/discuss in class. 
10. Use the documents here, the Background, and your own research to write a report entitled: ‘London in flames, causes and consequences of the Great Fire.’  
11. Use appropriate documents from this collection to provide a national context for your own GCSE historic environment local Restoration England. 
12. Research how London was rebuilt, exploring the role of Sir Christopher Wren and John Evelyn. 
13. Learn more about the growth of fire insurance, firefighting methods, and techniques. 

Primary history teachers   

 We also hope to encourage primary school teachers teaching the Great Fire of London as part of a scheme work supporting the National Curriculum theme ‘Events beyond living memory’ to use the original documents in this collection. 

Please note all documents have transcripts and simplified transcripts and are available for download. Teachers could use reduced document extracts with the simplified transcripts if preferred. Here are some activities using the collection. Bold text shows where to find suggested documents on the webpage for each activity. 

• Use Wenceslaus Hollar’s map with the diary extracts from Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn to see where the fire started in Pudding Lane and how it spread across the city of London. See sources labelled: Extracts from John Evelyn’s diary; Extracts from Samuel Pepys diary; Hollar’s map of the ‘ruined city’
• Use Wenceslaus Hollar’s map to find specific landmarks using the key. What the jobs did people do? What does the map show about how people travelled or what they believed? Hollar’s map of the ‘ruined city’
• Compare Wenceslaus Hollar’s map to the 1680 map which shows London rebuilt. Hollar’s map of the ‘ruined city’; Map to show London rebuilt in 1680. What differences can you see?
• What can we learn about the life of Thomas Farriner from his will? Will of Thomas Farriner 1670
• Draw a picture of a jettied building and label the fire hazards. Jettied buildings helped the fire spread 
• Write a letter to Joseph Williamson asking for news about the Great Fire and what caused it.  Use the sources to include some suggestions people used at the time. Foreigners fear for own safety; Fear fire started by French and the Dutch; The fire was a ‘heavy judgement’; Fire caused ‘by treachery or chance?’; Questions about the fire; A plot to ‘fire’ other cities? 
• Produce your own illustrated newspaper [broadside] story about the Great Fire of London 1666. London Gazette reports start of Great Fire; Dutch illustrated news sheet including the Great Fire
• Small groups prepare and perform a freeze frame an aspect of the story of the Great Fire of London [Pepys and Evelyn provide vivid accounts]. Extracts from John Evelyn’s diary; Extracts from Samuel Pepys diary; ‘Destruction by a consuming fire’; London Gazette reports start of Great Fire 
• Write and perform a drama based on the story of Edward Taylor. Fire caused by fire balls thrown in Pudding Lane? 
• Role play an interview Charles II about the fire: What did he do? Did he try to help the poor? How did he help those who lost their possessions? What did he try to change about building after the fire? Troops used to put out ‘a raging fire’; Stop the fire: ‘remove combustible matter’; Hollar’s commission for a map of London ‘ruined by fire’; Charles’ II plan to control building in London after the fire; Food shortage caused by fire; Restoring goods stolen during the fire; Monument to the Fire of London 1677
• Examine the sources on Victorian firefighting and firefighting in the Second World War. What has changed or stayed the same since 1666? Victorian fire fighters 1884; Second World War fire service

Great Fire Quiz

We have also developed a Great Fire Quiz, which could serve as an introduction to the topic for the Great Fire of London or perhaps be used for an assessment. This can be used as class activity for groups or individuals as part of a scheme work.

The quiz contains sources (listed at the end), which also appear in this collection to encourage students to engage with original material and to think about how we can find out about the past using primary evidence. Transcripts and simplified transcripts have been provided for all written documents where necessary in the quiz. Teachers may wish to follow up in more detail the quiz sources using the prompt questions found in the collection for those sources.

The take Great Fire of London quiz here

Introduction

Dr Bethan Davies, University of Roehampton

Shortly after midnight on 2 September 1666, the King’s baker Thomas Farriner woke up to the smell of smoke: his house was on fire. He gathered up his family and maidservant and urged them to leave. Everyone escaped the flames, except the maid who feared heights. She became the first casualty of the Great Fire of London.

The fire was to change the course of London’s history, leaving only a fifth of the Medieval city standing. The easterly wind, dry weather, and closely compacted wooden houses all helped the fire’s path through 460 streets, destroying 13,200 houses, 89 churches, and some of London’s most iconic buildings, including London’s religious epicentre, St. Paul’s. In panic and distress, people used buckets of water to stem the fire, to little avail. King Charles II, along with his brother, the future James II, actively helped to stop the fire in the streets. The fire raged through the city for four excruciatingly hot days. Finally, the ceasing of the wind and the authorities’ tactical deployment of gunpowder to destroy houses in the path of the fire brought it to an end. By then, 100,000 people were homeless. While officials recorded only 6 deaths from the fire, it is important to remember that the deaths of poor and middle-class people were not recorded anywhere. The heat of the fire may have left no recognizable remains.

It is not clear how the fire started; some blamed it on the spark from one of Farriner’s ovens, others said it was the will of God, a divine punishment for immoral behaviour. Many suspected foreign involvement believing Dutch and French immigrants and Catholics were to blame. A document in this collection shows that a ten-year-old boy called Edward Taylor and his family were questioned for throwing fireballs at an open window in Pudding Lane and in the streets. Fireballs were made from animal fat (called tallow), set alight and used to start fires. But the fire was most likely caused by accident or chance rather than by an intentional act to cause harm. A parliamentary inquiry eventually concluded the conflagration was an accident.

Two people have left us eyewitness accounts of the fire. The first was Samuel Pepys, who worked for the navy, and who kept a diary from 1660-1669. The second was the diarist John Evelyn, who described the terrible sight of the fire blazing across the city:

“Oh, the miserable and calamitous spectacle! such as haply the world had not seen since the foundation of it. All the sky was of a fiery aspect, like the top of a burning oven, and the light seen above 40 miles roundabout for many nights.’

Professor Kate Loveman’s research shows that ‘despite all the investigations into how the fire started, there is no one clear record of who was there in Farriner’s bakery that night. Important witnesses to the fire, such as servants, were not considered important enough to be named in most reports.  A letter from the MP Edward Harley reported that it was Farriner’s ‘man’ who sounded the alarm. Although Harley didn’t name this man, Thomas Dagger is listed among witnesses to events that night in a court document, while the Baker’s Company records confirm he worked for Farriner. Also in the house, according to reports, were Farriner’s maid and his two adult children. Afterwards, like many Londoners, Thomas Dagger worked quickly to rebuild his life, setting up on his own as a baker’.

The documents in this themed collection come from The National Archives’ State Papers. This means that the documents were originally part of the private papers of the Secretaries of State (the most important ministers serving the monarch) relating to the business and affairs of government at the time of the Great Fire. We can find a range of different documents in this collection. There are private letters addressed to Joseph Williamson (1633-1701), the Under-Secretary of State at the time. His correspondents from around England variously express grief at the rumours of fire in England’s capital, crave news of the fire’s progress in the city, offer aid and provisions to the needy, and share fears that foreigners are involved in the calamity. These private letters provide us with a great deal of information, including important insights into how news was shared and transmitted in the seventeenth century, and the growing importance of the postal service.

Other sources in this collection are ‘official’ printed proclamations or reports of events, including from the London Gazette, a newspaper established by Joseph Williamson in 1665. The royal proclamations are concerned with regulating the rebuilding of houses after the fire, restoring goods to their rightful owners, encouraging charitable donations to the afflicted, and announcing a solemn day of fasting and penitence to seek God’s mercy. These proclamations provide us with an understanding of how the government tried to restore law and order in the aftermath of the fire, and how they sought to help individuals in need.

The Great Fire of London was a calamity in the early years of Charles II’s reign, and it changed people’s lives irrevocably. The city was devastated, and suspicion of who began the fire inaugurated a host of complex religious, political, and social issues that Charles II and his government had to contend with. This collection also reveals the wealth of information to be found in the state papers at The National Archives that shed light on this crucial event in English history, and shows us the reactions of individuals from across the social spectrum, from the king to people who lost their homes and possessions in the fire.

Some of the sources in this collection are printed but others are handwritten in a style known as ‘secretary hand’. All of the sources have had sections transcribed, but in a few instances words are missing due to indecipherable handwriting or damage that the documents have experienced since their creation.