This famous London landmark, located on Fish Street close to Thames Street and London Bridge, is a fluted Doric column 202 feet high. It was designed by the scientist Robert Hooke to commemorate the Great Fire of 1666 and was built by Wren between 1671 and 1677. It is supposed to be located exactly 202 feet from where the fire broke out in Pudding Lane. A winding staircase leads to a caged gallery from which a splendid view may be obtained of St Paul’s, the Tower and Old London generally. A 42-foot-high flaming-gilt urn at the top symbolizes the fire, whose history is given on the base. Originally the religious prejudice of the late seventeenth century was expressed in this account, which blamed the disaster on the ‘popish faction’. Thus these lines from Pope’s Essay on Man:
Where London’s column, pointing at the skies, Like a tall bully, lifts the head and lies.
This reference was removed in 1831, after the repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts.