London's Great Fire and its Aftermath

A dry summer, a mishap at a bakery, and a howling gale combined to produce, in early September 1666, the most destructive fire in a West European city before the modern era. Despite the scale of the catastrophe, the government, the City and the Londoners themselves reacted so positively that the losses were soon replaced.

Most post-fire buildings have since been demolished, but the enduring legacies are the Monument erected to commemorate the conflagration, the surviving Wren churches and, above all, his magnificent cathedral.