The Great Fire of London

On this day in 1666 a fire broke out on Pudding Lane; it would become to be known as the Great Fire of London. Thomas Farriner, a baker, had gone to bed unaware of what he had set in motion about to happen later that night. Just after midnight a fire broke out in his home and bakery.

Farriner and his family are trapped upstairs, and later climb from an upstairs window to the house next door, except for a maidservant who was too frightened to try, and became the first victim. The neighbours come and try to put the fire out but don’t succeed. The fire goes on for another 4 days and is stopped final by the creation of firebreaks. These are made by demolishing houses in the fires path which in turn starves the fire of fuel. By it's end however, around 80% of the city had been destroyed.
 
The fire brought about many changes to London including the materials used in buildings – timber and thatch were soon to become a material of the past and the design, where the jetted fronts became unpopular.

This scene was built by James Pegrum as part of a series of models on British history. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter to see them first.