The Early Stuarts: Tensions and Gunpowder · Spring Term

The Great Fire of London 1666

The causes, course, and consequences of the fire that destroyed the City.

About This Topic

The Great Fire of London in 1666 began in Thomas Farriner's bakery on Pudding Lane and burned for four days, destroying over 13,000 houses, 87 churches, and much of the medieval city. Students explore the causes, such as tightly packed wooden buildings, overhanging upper storeys, narrow streets, and gale-force winds that fanned the flames. They trace the course of the fire's spread, including failed attempts to create firebreaks by demolition, and examine consequences like the rebuilding programme led by Christopher Wren, which introduced brick and stone construction, wider streets, and improved water supplies.

This topic aligns with KS3 History standards on social and cultural history during the Restoration and Early Stuarts unit. Key questions guide analysis: why the fire spread rapidly due to flammable materials and inadequate firefighting tools like leather buckets; how it transformed London's architecture and safety with regulations against timber framing and parish pump reforms; and why foreigners, especially Dutch and French amid recent wars, faced blame despite evidence pointing to accident. These develop skills in causation, consequence, and evaluating contemporary prejudices.

Active learning suits this topic well. Students engage through fire spread simulations using paper models or role-playing as officials debating firebreaks. Such hands-on methods make abstract events concrete, encourage source evaluation, and foster empathy for historical decision-making under pressure.

Learning Objectives

• Analyze the specific building materials and urban planning features that contributed to the rapid spread of the Great Fire of London.
• Explain the immediate and long-term consequences of the Great Fire on London's architecture, public safety regulations, and city planning.
• Evaluate the validity of contemporary accusations against foreigners as scapegoats for the Great Fire, considering the political climate of the time.
• Compare the firefighting methods available in 1666 with modern techniques to assess the challenges faced by Londoners during the fire.

Before You Start

Life in Tudor and Stuart England

Why: Understanding the general living conditions, housing types, and social structures of the period provides context for the fire's impact.

Causes of the English Civil War

Why: Familiarity with the political tensions and social unrest of the Stuart period helps explain the scapegoating of foreigners after the fire.

Key Vocabulary

Firebreak	A gap, such as a wide road or cleared area, created to stop the spread of a fire.
Timber-framed construction	A building method using a wooden structural frame, common in pre-fire London, which was highly flammable.
Pudding Lane	The narrow street where the Great Fire of London began in Thomas Farriner's bakery in 1666.
Rebuilding Act	Legislation passed after the fire to regulate the construction of new buildings in London, mandating brick and stone.
Scapegoat	A person or group blamed for the wrongdoings, mistakes, or faults of others.

Active Learning Ideas

Stations Rotation: Fire Spread Factors

Set up stations with models showing wooden houses, wind effects via fans, narrow streets with barriers, and firefighting tools. Groups spend 7 minutes at each, testing how changes affect flame spread on paper models and noting observations. Conclude with a class share-out comparing results to 1666 accounts.

⏱ 45 min·Small Groups

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Role-Play: Firebreak Debates

Assign roles as mayor, bakers, property owners, and firefighters. Groups debate whether to demolish houses using gunpowder, weighing risks to possessions against fire containment. Vote and reflect on decisions via written journals linked to Samuel Pepys' diary.

⏱ 35 min·Small Groups

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Source Analysis: Blame Game

Provide pamphlets, eyewitness letters, and broadsheets accusing foreigners. Pairs sort evidence for accident versus arson, then present findings in a mock trial format. Discuss xenophobia's role using timelines of Anglo-Dutch wars.

⏱ 40 min·Pairs

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Model Building: Rebuilt London

Individuals sketch and build small models contrasting pre- and post-fire streets using craft sticks for timber and bricks for stone. Label safety features like wider alleys. Gallery walk allows peer feedback on Wren's influences.

⏱ 50 min·Individual

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Real-World Connections

Urban planners today use historical data, including the lessons from the Great Fire, to design cities with fire-resistant materials, wider streets, and improved emergency access, as seen in modern building codes.

Disaster management agencies, like the London Fire Brigade, still train for large-scale urban fires, drawing on historical precedents to understand fire dynamics and evacuation strategies.

Historians and archaeologists analyze primary source documents and physical evidence to reconstruct past events, similar to how they study the Great Fire's impact on social structures and public perception.

Watch Out for These Misconceptions

Common Misconception

The fire was started deliberately by Catholics or foreigners as arson.

What to Teach Instead

Contemporary rumours blamed Papists amid anti-Catholic feeling, but investigations found it accidental from an overfired oven. Active source-sorting activities help students weigh biased pamphlets against neutral accounts, building critical evaluation skills.

Common Misconception

Firefighting in 1666 used modern methods like hoses and engines.

What to Teach Instead

Efforts relied on buckets, hooks, and manual demolition; no effective pumps existed city-wide. Simulations with replica tools reveal limitations, prompting students to appreciate why the fire overwhelmed responders through direct trial.

Common Misconception

London was rebuilt exactly as before with the same wooden structures.

What to Teach Instead

Rebuilding imposed stone mandates, fire-resistant designs, and regulated building heights. Model-building tasks let students compare old and new plans, clarifying long-term safety reforms via tangible contrasts.

Assessment Ideas

Exit Ticket

Provide students with a map of 17th-century London. Ask them to draw three specific features that would have helped the fire spread quickly and one feature that could have slowed it down. Students should label each feature and write one sentence explaining its role.

Discussion Prompt

Pose the question: 'If you were a city official in 1666, what would be your top three priorities for rebuilding London to prevent another disaster?' Facilitate a class discussion where students justify their choices based on the fire's causes and consequences.

Quick Check

Present students with short statements about the causes, course, or consequences of the Great Fire. Ask them to indicate 'True' or 'False' and provide a brief justification for their answer, focusing on specific details learned about the event.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why did the Great Fire of London spread so quickly?

Wooden houses with thatched roofs packed closely together, strong easterly winds, and overhanging storeys allowed embers to leap gaps. Narrow streets hindered access for firefighters using buckets and hooks. Demolition for firebreaks failed due to disputes over compensation, prolonging the blaze across 436 acres.

How did the Great Fire change London's architecture and safety?

Post-fire laws banned timber framing above ground level, mandated brick and stone, and widened streets for better access. Christopher Wren redesigned churches with stone; new sewers and 2,000 parish pumps improved water supply. These reforms prevented similar disasters for centuries.

Why were foreigners blamed for starting the Great Fire?

Tensions from the Second Anglo-Dutch War and recent French conflicts fueled xenophobia. Robert Hubert's false confession as a Frenchman intensified rumours, despite bakery evidence. Broadsheets exploited fears, diverting anger from poor city planning.

How can active learning help teach the Great Fire of London?

Activities like fire spread simulations with fans and models make causation vivid, as students test wind and material effects firsthand. Role-plays of debates over firebreaks build decision-making skills, while source stations teach bias detection. These methods deepen empathy for 1666 pressures and retention through kinesthetic engagement over lectures.