THE GREAT FIRE OF LONDON
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00John Frieser, a seasoned and highly respected royal chef, had served in the kitchen of King
00:17Charles II for five long years. His culinary mastery was known throughout London, and he took
00:24pride in every dish he crafted for the royal table. That evening in 1666, after an exhausting day spent
00:32preparing meals for the palace, Frieser finally retired to his room in a quiet section of the city
00:38known as Pudding Lane. His modest bedroom sat directly above the bakery's kitchen. Tired to his
00:45bones, he climbed into bed, blew out the candle beside him, stretched his legs under the sheets,
00:51and drifted into a deep sleep, snoring gently under the wooden beams of the ceiling.
00:57Unbeknownst to him, a small, persistent flame still flickered inside the oven in the bakery
01:03just beneath his bedroom. The air in the kitchen, thick with the dry scent of flour and hay,
01:10soon stirred as the embers glowed hotter. Around 2 o'clock in the early morning of 2 September 1666,
01:17that quiet flame suddenly erupted. It leapt from the heart of the oven, quickly catching the pile
01:23of dry hay stacked nearby, and roared to life with violent intensity. The fire crackled furiously,
01:30and within moments, the flames clawed their way upward. They licked the walls and ceiling of the bakery,
01:37filling the room with thick black smoke. As they burst out of the kitchen, they began to consume
01:43everything in sight. Soon, the inferno surged skyward, its glowing tongues casting a flickering red glow
01:51on the dark London skyline. Outside, the narrow lanes of Pudding Lane lay in silence, but this small
01:58street, packed tightly between rows of timber-framed houses, stood in one of the most crowded
02:04quarters of the city. It wasn't long before the fire spilled out into the lane, its embers carried on
02:11the wind, igniting doorways and rooftops one after the other. As the fire grew larger, it lit up the
02:18night like a rising sun. People began to stir in their homes. Windows opened. Faces peered out.
02:27Soon, hundreds of curious Londoners poured out into the streets. Many stood at a distance,
02:34staring with strange calm at the fiery display. Small fires were a common occurrence in the city,
02:40houses made of wood and dry thatch often caught light. Fires had become so frequent that people
02:47had grown used to them. Watching flames was, to some, almost a form of evening entertainment.
02:54A year earlier, King Charles II had ordered the Lord Mayor to impose strict punishments on those
03:00responsible for causing such fires, in hopes of reducing their frequency. But despite the warning,
03:07little had changed. This time, because Pudding Lane was so close to the road leading to London Bridge,
03:14word of the fire traveled fast. Before long, the Lord Mayor himself arrived at the scene.
03:21He surveyed the fire with little concern. In his judgment, it seemed like another minor blaze,
03:29no different from the others. He dismissed the severity and returned to his duties,
03:33unaware of the destruction to come. Meanwhile, in another part of London, a civil servant named
03:40Samuel P. Pyre was asleep in his home. At about three in the morning, his maid burst into the room
03:48and woke him. She told him about a fire ragging nearby. Still groggy, he threw on his nightgown and
03:56went to the back window. From there, he saw bright flames rising high into the air, roughly four
04:03furlongs away. Thinking it was just a local fire in Torquay Lane, he shrugged it off, went back to bed,
04:11and returned to sleep. It wasn't until much later in the morning, close to noon, that Pyre woke again.
04:19This time, the sky outside was darkened with smoke. The fire had grown far beyond what he had imagined.
04:27Pyre rushed to Whitehall, and the news of the spreading fire was passed on to officials there.
04:34Still, the information took time to reach the king. Since it was Sunday, and the king cherished
04:40his Sunday rest, his attendants had delayed informing him of the disaster. That delay proved critical.
04:48Had the king known earlier, swift and decisive action might have been taken to stop the fire
04:54in its tracks. As the day wore on, the fire raged stronger than ever. What the public once thought
05:01was just another fire soon became a living nightmare. By the time Sunday evening arrived,
05:08the flames had made their way to the edge of the river Thames. In this area stood many warehouse,
05:14and homes packed with flammable goods, timber for building, barrels of brandy, and heaps of coal.
05:21Each new building caught fire with a violent blast, as if bombs were going off. The flames
05:27leapt from rooftop to rooftop, from wall to wall. Then came the wind. From the east,
05:34a dry and relentless wind began to blow hard across the city. It carried the fire with terrifying speed.
05:42The efforts of those trying to put out the flames were completely overwhelmed. The fire leapt westward,
05:49swallowing whole neighborhoods within hours. There was one brief chance on Sunday to control the fire.
05:56But that moment was tragically lost. Some members of the fire brigade, whose duty was to save the city,
06:04were too busy looting homes. These corrupt officials, driven by greed, stole valuables from the houses
06:11instead of helping to fight the flames. They hoped the fire would last longer so they could steal more.
06:18Their negligence cost the city dearly. The fire did not stop. It surged through Monday. It ravaged through
06:27Tuesday. And by Wednesday, London was in ruins. When the last flames died down that evening,
06:35the destruction was almost beyond belief. 13,000 homes had turned to ash. 80 stately mansions had collapsed
06:43into piles of blackened stone and splinters. Over 300 acres of the city lay charred and lifeless.
06:51The famous shops that stood proudly on London Bridge were gone. Fire had crossed the bridge and touched
06:58the northern banks of the Thames, leaving behind scars of heat and flame. Great public buildings,
07:05the guild hall, the royal exchange, and the financial district had vanished into smoke and rubble. Even
07:12the grand structure of St. Paul's Cathedral had suffered heavily. Inside its museum, precious stones
07:19had cracked from the heat. Ancient artifacts shattered. Explosions tore the roofs of crypts, exposing the
07:26bones and bandaged remains of Egyptian mummies that had once rested in silence. And yet, despite the
07:34immensity of the destruction, only eight lives were officially recorded as lost. Most citizens had
07:41escaped in time. The roads were jammed with carts and people fleeing, their faces blackened with soot,
07:48their arms full of whatever they could carry. The outskirts of London became a massive camp of homeless
07:55refugees. Samuel P. Pyre was among those who fled. His home had burned down with the rest.
08:04In his diary, he wrote about the unearthly heat that swallowed the city, how even the breeze felt like
08:10a tongue of fire. Flames seemed to chase people through the streets. Above them, the sky was hidden
08:17behind heavy smoke. When the sun did appear, it looked red and wounded, as if bleeding through the clouds.
08:25In one place, the roof of a great hall made from coin metal collapsed. The molten coins spilled
08:32into the street and flowed like a silver river. Finally, by Wednesday night, the king personally
08:39intervened. He took the disaster seriously and acted with urgency. He ordered the demolition
08:45of buildings near the fire. These buildings were torn down to create fire breaks, open spaces where
08:53the flames could not jump across. It worked. The fire's path was interrupted, and its fury was finally
09:01subdued. Londoners, broken and weary, breath in the first air not choked with smoke in days. Even though
09:09the worst had passed, pockets of fire continued to burn. For weeks and in some places months, the narrow
09:17alleys of London smouldered. Hidden fires flared up again and again in shadowy corners, but in time,
09:24the city rose again. It was rebuilt with stronger materials, using brick and stone. Streets were widened,
09:33and new fire regulations were enforced. Out of the ashes, a better London began to take shape.
09:40Ironically, the fire had one hidden benefit. The great clouds of smoke and heat that poured
09:47through the city helped to cleanse it. Just a year earlier, in 1665, a plague had killed nearly 100,000
09:56people in just a few weeks. But now, the fire and smoke acted as a purifying force. The plague
10:03disappeared along with the old, crowded, filthy streets. The fire had devoured much, but it had also
10:10opened a door to rebirth.