London Commemorates 350th Anniversary Of Its Great Fire

The Great Fire of London broke out on Sep 2, 1666, and the city is commissioning what it describes as a dazzling programme of events to mark the 350th anniversary. If commemorations dig

deeper than the official account, they may mention that blame fell on Catholics in the immediate aftermath. The theory that the fire was a Papist plot found favour during the Restoration, an unsettled and dark time in British history. The official account says the blaze started accidentally at a

baker's shop in Pudding Lane near London Bridge and that a violent east wind fanned the flames, which took three days to extinguish. The worst fire in London's history, it destroyed 373 acres of the City - from the Tower in the East to Fleet Street

and Fetter Lane in the West - burning some 13,200 houses, 84 churches and most of the civic buildings. Fires in London were common at the time because of the capital's mainly timber construction. 

A BBC history points out that, following decades of political and religious upheaval, the Restoration of the Protestant King Charles II in 1660 ensured that suspicion lingered around republicans and Catholics after the fire. A commemorative column erected in the 1670s near the source of the blaze blamed it on Papists. The BBC history notes that it

was not until 1831 that the inscription on the monument, which attributed the fire to the "the treachery and malice of the Popish faction," was removed. An exhibition in July at the Museum of London is one commemorative event that has chosen

to advertise early. The Great Fire will also be marked with the minting of a special £2 coin.