The history and antiquities of London, Westminster, Southwark, and other parts adjacent ... Continued to the present time / by Thomas Wright.
- Thomas Allen
- Date:
- 1839
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The history and antiquities of London, Westminster, Southwark, and other parts adjacent ... Continued to the present time / by Thomas Wright. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![The improved healthfulness of the metropolis must be ascribed principally to the alterations that were made in the widths of the streets, lanes, and other passages, in consequence of the great fire of 1666; to the improved and more open modes of building, by which a free circulation of air was secured; and to the greater cleanliness resulting from the constant supplies of water for domestic purposes, by means of the New River, and various water companies. In April, 1666, John Rathbone, an old colonel, with seven others, ‘ formerly officers or soldiers in the late rebellion,’ were convicted and executed for high treason, in forming a plan for sur- prising the Tower and the king’s guard, killing the lord-general, and other persons, and setting fire to the city, ^ the better to effect their hellish designs.’* The 3rd of September ‘ was pitched on for the attempt, as being found by Lillie’s almanack, and a scheme erected for that purpose, to be a lucky day, a planet then ruling which prognosticated the downfall of monarchy.”! The most important event, perhaps, that ever happened in this metropolis, whether it be considered in reference to its immediate effects, or to its remote consequences, was the great fire of 1666; which broke out on the morning of Sunday, the 2nd of September, and, being impelled by strong winds, raged with irresistible fury nearly four days and nights, nor was it entirely, mastered till the fifth morning after it began. The following is tho^ official account, as given in the London Gazette of September the 10th : “ Whitehall, September 8. ‘‘On the 2nd instant, at one o’clock in the morning, there hap- pened to break out a sad and deplorable fire in Pudding-lane, near New Fish-street; which, falling out at that hour of the night, and in a quarter of the town so close built with wooden pitch’d houses, spread itself so far before day, and with such destruction to the in- habitants and neighbours, that care was not taken for the timely preventing the further diffusion of it, by pulling down houses, as it ought to have been; so that this lamentable fire, in a short time, became too big to be mastered by any engines, or working near it. It fell out most unhappily too, that a violent easterly wind fomented it, and kept it burning all that day, and the night following; Qhe fire] spreading itself up to Gracechurch-street, and downwards from Cannon-street, to the waterside, as far as the Three Cranes in the Vintry. “ The people in all parts about it, [were] distracted by the vast- ness of it, and their particular care to carry away their goods; many attempts vv^ere made to prevent the spreading of it, by pull- ing down houses, and making great intervals; but all in vain: the fire seizing upon the timber and rubbish, and so continuing itself even through those spaces, and raging in a bright flame all * Load. Gaz. 30th April. t Ibid. VOL. I. 2 D](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b29310775_0417.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
