What did the Great Fire destroy?
The flames ran riot through the city, going east to the Tower of London and west as far as the Temple. The scale of destruction was greater than the Blitz in the 1940s.
The fire claimed 13,200 houses and 87 churches. It tore through Cheapside, London’s main street. It destroyed the Guildhall – the home of London’s government. And it wrecked the old St Paul’s Cathedral.
In this plan of the city from our collection, the area destroyed by fire is shown in white. When archaeologists dig in London, they often find a layer of scorched debris from the fire – a lot of it has ended up in our collection.
