The year 1666 is of great importance in the history of London’s Christian landmarks. In a few short days during early September medieval London, as represented by four-score parish churches and the largest cathedral in Europe, vanished forever. The fire (often referred to as the Great Fire of London), which started in a bakery shop on Pudding Lane just a short distance north of London Bridge, got out of hand because of the particularly dry weather combined with a high wind. Such firefighting equipment as existed was crude. Until the king himself and his brother James, the duke of York, stepped in on the second day, the scene was one of almost total panic and confusion.
At times the flames, whipped by the winds, amounted to what in World War II came to be called a ‘fire storm’. In the end the centre of the old city as far north as Cripplegate and westward beyond the walls as far as Chancery Lane was totally destroyed. Because the winds were blowing out of the east, a small portion of the eastern and north-eastern precincts was fortunately spared. Before the fire there were 109 churches within the City of London. Of these, the fire destroyed eighty-nine, and thirty-five were not rebuilt. Most of the twenty that survived the fire were destroyed later in other ways; a few were rebuilt and towers of others were left standing.
The precious handful that have come down to us relatively unchanged from before 1666 are described individually. The Monument commemorating the Great Fire measures the exact distance from its base to its crown as from the base to the spot where the fire is thought to have started (on Pudding Lane). Originally the text on the base of the Monument blamed the Catholics for the disaster, but that has since been eliminated.