The Monument to the Great Fire of London
Monument Street, London EC3
The Monument to the Great Fire of London is located 61 metres from the King's baker's shop on Pudding Lane where the fire started in the early hours of Sunday, September 2nd 1666.
Pudding Lane, at that time, was a narrow cobbled street of timber houses with overhanging upper storeys, situated near to the north bank of the River Thames and close to London Bridge. The fire destroyed 13,000 houses, 87 London churches and devastated four-fifths of the medieval city before the flames were extinguished.
The Monument, designed by Christopher Wren and Robert Hooke is a simple fluted column of Portland Stone, capped by a flaming gilt copper urn that is 200 feet above the ground. Every year thousands of people climb the narrow winding staircase of over 300 steps and are rewarded by the magnificent views from the top.
Visitors who climb to the top are rewarded with a certificate of their achievement.
The Monument took six years to build and the Royal Society used the building for the study of astronomy until they realised the building wasn't suitable for their purpose.
The west front of the base of the Monument has a relief showing the destruction of the City; with King Charles II, and his brother, James, the Duke of York surrounded by Liberty, Architecture, and Science, giving directions for its restoration.
The Latin inscription on the north panel of the pedestal translates as "In the year of Christ 1666, on 2 September, at a distance eastward from this place of 202 ft, which is the height of this column, a fire broke out in the dead of night which, the wind blowing, devoured even distant buildings, and rushed devastating through every quarter with astonishing swiftness and noise ... On the third day ... at the bidding, we may well believe, of heaven, the fire stayed its course and everywhere died out."
Nearest Tube / London Underground Station: Monument.
The Monument is open daily from 9.30-5.30.
Admission fee charged.
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