Photograph of the Monument to the Great Fire of London, 1899. Catalogue ref: COPY 1/442/628.
Copyright owner of work: York & Son, 67 Lancaster Road, Notting Hill Middlesex. Copyright author of work: William York, 75 Lancaster Road, North Kensington, Middlesex.
The Monument is located at the northern end of London Bridge. It was built from 1671-1677 and stands near the location of the Pudding Lane bakery, where the fire started. The Monument commemorated the Great Fire of London and marked the rebuilding of the city. It was designed by Sir Christopher Wren, Surveyor General to King Charles II with Dr Robert Hooke. The column is 61 metres high, its distance from Pudding Lane. It has a viewing platform at the top with gilded vase full of flames to represent the fire.
- What does the building of the monument reveal about how people responded to the Great Fire of London in the seventeenth century?
- What is the value of a Victorian photograph of a monument built to commemorate the Great Fire of London in the 1670s?
Visual description
Photograph shows the monument to commemorate the Great fire of London. It is a fluted Doric column on a decorated pedestal. In front of the column two women stand wearing long dresses and hats. A figure of man, wearing dark clothes and a top hat stands to the right with his back towards the camera. The Monument stands in a street with tall brick buildings on either side. On the left there are shop fronts at ground level. On the right side the building is in shadow and covered with advertising posters, including one for the ‘Daily Telegraph’. The word ‘Monument’ is written in the left-hand corner of the photograph.