Pudding Lane & The Monument
Why is it significant?
Crane your neck: a fluted stone column rises above the street, and at its very top a gilded urn bursts into golden flames. This is the Monument to the Great Fire of London, and it is not just tall. It is a measurement.
Key Facts
| Place | Pudding Lane & The Monument |
|---|---|
| Address | The Monument, Fish Street Hill, London EC3R 8AH, United Kingdom |
| Geo Coordinates | 51.51010, -0.08590 |
| Part of Walk | London Burning: The Great Fire of 1666 and Wren's Phoenix City, from the Tower to St Paul's |
| Generated | Generated |
Crane your neck: a fluted stone column rises above the street, and at its very top a gilded urn bursts into golden flames. This is the Monument to the Great Fire of London, and it is not just tall. It is a measurement.
A few steps away, on Pudding Lane, a plaque marks the spot of Thomas Farriner's bakery. Farriner baked bread for the King's navy, and in the early hours of Sunday the 2nd of September 1666, his house caught fire. The family escaped over the rooftops, but their maid was too frightened to follow, and she became the fire's first victim. The Lord Mayor, called out of bed, looked at the blaze and declared it so small a woman could put it out... and went back to sleep.
The Monument was designed by Christopher Wren and his brilliant friend Robert Hooke and finished in 1677. It is 61 metres high, and it stands exactly 61 metres from the site of the bakery: lay it down to the east and the flames on top would land on Farriner's oven. Three hundred and eleven steps lead up to the viewing platform. And Hooke, a scientist to the bone, designed the hollow shaft as a giant zenith telescope, with a laboratory underneath.
Walk round to read the inscriptions on the base. One of them once blamed the fire on the treachery and malice of the Catholics. There was no evidence at all, but in an age of plots it was believed, and the accusation was carved in stone in 1681. It was only chiselled away in 1830.
Look down the hill to the church of St Magnus the Martyr. Old London Bridge, covered in houses, began beside it, and the fire ran onto the bridge within hours. It stopped only at a gap left by an earlier fire in 1633, and so Southwark was saved. Officially just a handful of people died in the Great Fire, though historians suspect many more. Now walk north, up Gracechurch Street, to a glittering Victorian market.