It is believed that history is made by great people: commanders, emperors, fiery revolutionaries (these, however, not so much create as they destroy, but nevertheless). Great thinkers and spiritual leaders, at worst, also make History. But can an ordinary person, say a turner or a baker, somehow influence History? The overwhelming majority will say that “no, it cannot,” and they will be wrong. Because once it was a baker who influenced the fate of a huge city. The baker's name was John Farinor, and the city was London.
It was in the second half of the 17th century. Farinor's modest bakery was located in central London, between the Bridge and the Tower, and all Londoners were pleased with the shy guy's culinary products, who from early morning rushed to buy fresh bread at his institution.
Although, to be precise, the bakery was not modest, because for five years John Farinor was in the service of King Charles II and supplied his Majesty's court with fresh buns and pretzels for breakfast, muffins for lunch, and pies with all kinds of filling. And John was thinking of baking something else to please the royal family and thereby gain even greater authority.
On that fateful day, September 1, 1666, Farinor had to stand at the stove until late in the evening, and he was very tired. His eyes closed, he wanted to sleep. Unable to withstand fatigue, Farinor decided to take a nap and return to the bakery early in the morning, since everything was located in the same house. First he sent off the apprentices, and then went home himself.
His road was very short, in fact, it was necessary to climb the stairs to the second floor. Farinor did not check the fire in the ovens again, because he was quite sure that he had left the bakery in perfect order.
He went upstairs to his bedroom, sat down on the bed and only then felt the daytime weariness literally crushed him. There was no longer the strength to resist her, although a thought flashed through: did he have a flame left in the furnace? But he dismissed the thought, blew out the candle, fell on the pillow, dressed like that, and fell asleep.
He slept very soundly, and below in the stove the flame that he had not extinguished continued to blaze. And something happened that usually happens in such cases. Sparks from the stove fell onto the dry plank floor, and the dry, tarred wood instantly flared up.
And then the rags and towels caught fire. In addition, sparks flying out of the pipe hit a haystack in a nearby yard, and it immediately caught fire. From the stack, the fire spread to the wall of a nearby building.
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From the bakery, a suffocating smoke breathed, there was already a burning tree cracking with might and main, when the apprentices smelled the smell of burning. The guys first of all rushed upstairs to the owner and woke him up. It was so blazing that it was too late to take emergency measures to extinguish the fire.
The entire lower floor, where there were barrels of water and the necessary equipment (axes and hooks), was engulfed in fire. John, his wife, children and apprentices had no choice but to escape through the roof. And on the first floor there was only a nanny, who was no longer destined to get out.
John Farinor and his family managed to escape by jumping from roof to roof. They got out into the street and from a safe place watched the spread of the fire.
In those years, London was a crowded city with narrow streets, in which fires were quite frequent: as soon as one dilapidated house caught fire, the next one immediately flared up. Homes in areas known as London slums, where the poor lived, were especially on fire. And nobody paid special attention to such fires.
But now a fire broke out in the city center, not far from the Tower and the bridge over the Thames. Nevertheless, it was not easy for the firefighters to get to the blazing houses. The flames raged, the rising wind threw sparks on neighboring buildings, and soon several buildings on Padding Lane caught fire. The night street was filled with shouts.
Hundreds of people ran out of their homes in order to somehow try to cope with the fire before the firefighters arrived. But where there! There were, however, those who just came running to gaze at the flames and fire victims. However, most people soon realized that the fire would quickly spread to other houses and the best thing now is to take your valuables with you and run as far as possible.
London, full of buildings made of tarred planks and plastered shingles, caught fire frequently, so people are already used to such relocations. Of course, they fought with fires, but no one could offer a radical means of fighting fires.
True, about a year before the events described, King Charles II sent a note to the Lord Mayor, demanding the introduction of stricter fire safety rules.
The Lord Mayor naturally agreed, but did nothing efficient. The fact is that all the previous fires somehow subsided by themselves. This one was expected to do the same.
But later it turned out that there was a landfill on Padding Lane where rubbish from the nearest Eastchip Market was dumped, and it also broke out.
Soon she was drawn by such a poisonous smoke and smell that many townspeople could not stand the stench and ran across the bridge to the other side of the Thames.
The Lord Mayor was informed of the start of the fire early in the morning, but the city governor who arrived had a faint impression of the burning houses. “Fi,” he said. - What's wrong with this fire? Even a woman, if she urinates, will easily flood it."
Another government official named Samuel Pepis was no more impressed by the fire. The maid woke him up at three in the morning. His home was near Tower Hill, about three-quarters of a mile east of the disaster site.
This is what Pepys wrote in his diary: “I got up, put on my robe, went to the window, thought that it must be no further than the back of Mark Lane. Well, I went back to bed, thinking to sleep. But he could not get enough sleep. The smoke and screams of people running through the streets woke him up.
And what about the king? It was Sunday, a holy day, on which no one dared to disturb His Majesty. But it was a huge fire! Shortly before noon, Pepys reported to his office in Whitehall, the quarter where government offices were located. For a long time he could not make up his mind, but then he plucked up courage and asked to report to the king that a big fire had started in the center of the city.
However, the king could not do anything. He, like all his subjects, could only hope for the mercy of God and wait for the fire to go out by itself. But soon this hope vanished.
The day was windy, the fanning flames spread to neighboring houses and neighborhoods, and by midday the fire reached the Thames. Almost immediately, the warehouses along the river bank, filled with timber, coal, oil and food, burst into flames. Explosions were soon heard. These were barrels of cognac, alcohol and wine.
The fire spread so quickly that there was no way to stop it. The flame spread like a river, in one minute it covered entire streets, flew over great distances and exterminated everything.
The spread was facilitated by an even and dry wind that blew continuously from the east. And thanks to this constant wind, the fire, almost hitting the house of Pepys, spread unhindered to the west. On Sunday, the flames could probably still be extinguished.
But the firefighters in the rush and confusion prevailing then, trying to fill the buckets as soon as possible, damaged the water supply system, thereby leaving the entire central region without water supply.
Hellfire raged for more than three days - from Sunday night to Wednesday. Three terrible days and no less terrible nights, tongues of red flame shot up into the London sky. During this time, 13,200 houses on four hundred large streets, 87 churches and many public buildings were burned down, 300 acres of land were devastated. Stores and shops located on London Bridge burned.
Sparks from it flew to the opposite side of the Thames, and they started fires in other parts of the city. The Town Hall and the Royal Exchange, the financial center of London, turned to ash.
The most terrible disasters were caused by the fire to St. Paul's Cathedral: stones exploded from the heat, ancient tombs opened, revealing mummified remains. The roof of the cathedral was melting, liquid lead was spreading in streams along the adjacent streets. It was a terrible sight. It seemed that some kind of fire-breathing dragon pounced on the peaceful city.
However, here's what is surprising: in the Great London Fire (this is what it later received the name) only 8 people died. Most of the townspeople had enough time to flee. The roads were clogged with carts laden with belongings, the whole district turned into a continuous refugee camp.
Among those who left the city was Pepis. In his diary, he wrote: “The wind is blowing in your face, and at the same time you are almost burnt by the sparks of flame that rain down from this terrifying, this ominous, this damned fire … And above all this is smoke, so thick and huge that in noon obscures the sun. And if it sometimes appears, it is red as blood."
By Wednesday evening, the fire was practically extinguished. And this happened thanks to the personal intervention of the king, who sent fire brigades to destroy buildings in the path of the fire in order to prevent it from spreading. But London smoldered for several more weeks, and the basements continued to smolder even six months later!
When the inhabitants of London began to repair and rebuild their homes, the remarkable architect and mathematician Christopher Wren (Wren) (1632-1723) was commissioned to draft a new layout and rebuilding of the city.
He suggested that the government take into account this disaster and build London according to a new plan, so that the city lives up to its purpose - the great capital of a great people.
However, the proposal of the talented architect was ignored, the project due to various circumstances was only partially implemented, and London continued to be built up almost in its former form. Of the 87 burnt churches in the city of Ren, 51 were restored in a new baroque form, including the rebuilding of St. Paul's Cathedral.
Ren was also commissioned to build a monument in memory of the natural disaster, which he did. The column built by Wren, known in London as the "London Monument", never received another name.
This colossal Doric column is 62 meters high. Inside it is a staircase of white marble with 345 steps. They lead to the landing, which offers an amazing view of the whole of London. The column was built of Partlandian stone with bronze and marble decor.
On the pedestal there is a description of the fire with all the details and various allegorical figures. Earlier on the "Monument" there was an inscription that the fire was made by the papists, now this inscription is gone.
In addition, there is a tradition that the fire destroyed the consequences of the previous London catastrophe - the great plague of 1665, which claimed a hundred thousand lives, and in general, forever exterminated the plague in London, which had been raging periodically for many centuries.
The Great Fire of London is reflected in numerous paintings and prints from the time. Thanks to them, we can personally imagine this horror, which has remained for centuries and entered the list of great catastrophes in the history of mankind.
Based on materials by N. Ionina, M. Kubeev