How much do you know about the Great Fire of London?
Some questions have sources as clues, use them to help if you can.
Teacher’s notes
This quiz can be used as class activity for groups or individuals as part of a scheme work supporting the National Curriculum theme ‘Events beyond living memory’. It could serve as an introduction to the topic for the Great Fire of London or perhaps be used for an assessment.
The quiz contains a large number of original archival sources to encourage students to engage with original material and think about how we can find out about the past using original sources. Transcripts and simplified transcripts have been provided for all written documents where necessary in the quiz. Many more examples of documents relating to the Great Fire of London can be found in our themed collection of documents on the topic. Again, all documents in this themed collection have transcripts and simplified transcripts as well as prompt questions and captions for context. Teachers could select any of them to work with and develop their own resources on the Great Fire of London. In the themed collection we have also included some sources relating to fire fighting in the Victorian period and Second World War to give teachers the opportunity to explore themes of continuity and change if wished. Finally, there are further suggestions for activities with the themed collection for the primary classroom relating to documents about the Great Fire of London.
Alternatively, teachers, may wish to explore in more detail the sources used in the quiz, which also come from the themed collection. All sources used in the quiz are listed for reference.
Related Resources
- Great Fire of London lesson (KS 1-3)
Quiz sources
Question 1: Image from ‘An Exact Surveigh of the Streets Lanes and Churches contained within the ruins of the City of London … John Leake, John Jennings, William Marr, Will. Leybourn…’ Subtitled: Hollar’s ‘Exact Survey’ of the City of London, 1667. Catalogue ref: ZMAP 4/18. [Find image of the whole map in the themed collection on the Great Fire of London.]
Question 2:
Henry VIII, Catalogue ref: KB 27/1119/2 Coram Regis Rolls, 1541.
Elizabeth I, Catalogue ref: KB 27/1276, Coram Regis Rolls, 1581
Charles II, Catalogue ref: T40/1c 1684
James II, Catalogue ref: RAIL 1073/60, 1685
Question 5: Extract from the Hearth tax to be paid for fireplaces and ovens Catalogue ref: E179/252/32 pt4.p6.This provides evidence about Thomas Farriner, the Pudding Lane baker.
Question 7: Extract from a letter from Thomas Holden at Falmouth to Joseph Williamson, 12 September 1666, Catalogue ref: SP 29/171 f79.
Joseph Williamson (1633-1701) was the Under-Secretary of State July 1660-74 and Keeper of the State Papers which he reorganised from 1661-1701. He also started the ‘Oxford Gazette’ at the time of the Great Plague in 1665, which later became established as the ‘London Gazette’.
Question 8:
Charles II, Catalogue ref: T40/1c 1684
John Evelyn (1620-1706) Wikimedia Commons Portrait of John Evelyn; by Nanteuil after himself from Wellcome Images operated by Wellcome Trust.
Joseph Williamson (1633-1701) Wikimedia Commons National Portrait Gallery NPG 1100.
Samuel Pepys (1633-1703) Wikimedia Commons National Portrait Gallery NPG 211.
Question 9:
English table clock with alarm. Unknown date; Modern Age-European and British-art and design period; Circa 1650. Wikimedia Commons
Parmesan cheese: Parmigiano Reggiano meules [cheese millstones] Wikimedia Commons. Also The Diary of Samuel Pepys website publishes daily extracts from the diary. You can find Pepys’ description of the Great Fire of London on 2 September and on 4 September 1666, famously burying his ‘parmazan cheese’.
Miniature silver cream jug: late 17th–early 18th century Metropolitan Museum of Art, Wikimedia Commons.
Volumes of Pepys’ diary: H.B. Wheatley, ed, The Diary of Samuel Pepys: Pepysiana (London, 1899). Wikimedia Commons
Question 10: Letter from Lord Arlington at Whitehall (on behalf of Charles II) to the Lieutenant of Hertfordshire. 6 September 1666. SP 29/170 f.126. Similar letters in the state papers were sent to the Lieutenants of Kent for Southwark, of Middlesex for the Temple, and of Surrey for Lambeth.
Question 12: Catalogue ref: COPY 1/126 (317) 1898.
Question 14: Extract from Charles II’s proclamation for a ‘General Fast throughout England & Wales’, 10 October 1666, Catalogue ref: SP 45/12 f230.
Question 15: Instruction from the Charles II to the Lord Mayor, Aldermen and other Magistrates of London about his appointment of Wenceslaus Hollar and Francis Sandford to make a map of London. Catalogue ref: SP 29/171 f20.
Question 16: Extract from a printed pamphlet entitled ‘His Majesty’s Declaration To his City of LONDON upon the occasion of the late Calamity by the lamentable FIRE’. This gives details of how Charles II planned to improve the city and prevent future fires. Catalogue ref: SP 29/171 f95.
Question 17: Boxes of War Office documents on repository shelving at The National Archives in Kew, 2008, The National Archives. Wikimedia Commons.
Question 18: A cart for transporting the dead in London during the Great Plague, 1665. Watercolour painting by or after G. Cruikshank. Wellcome Collection. Wikimedia Common