In
September of 1666, the city of London burned to the ground, leaving
80,000 people homeless. This became known as the Great Fire of London.
Maybe that title was given to distinguish it from all the
other great
fires that leveled the city in its history. In fact, London has been
destroyed by fire about a dozen times, beginning when the city was only
about twenty years old.
1. BOUDICEA GETS HER REVENGE // CIRCA 60 CE
After
the death of her husband Prasutagus in the mid-1st century CE, lands
that should rightfully have passed to the ancient British queen Boudicea
and her daughters were instead claimed by the invading Roman Empire.
Before then, Boadicea’s tribe, the Iceni, had been allied with the
Romans, but the entire affair soured that relationship.
Enraged,
Boudicea sacked the Roman city at modern Colchester and marched her army
on towards London—or rather, to the newly founded Roman settlement of
Londinium—and burned it to the ground. So total was Boadicea’s
destruction of the city that archaeologists working the capital today
can still identify a noticeable thin layer of red-brown oxidized ash on
the site occupying the original settlement, and Roman coins melted
together by the extreme heat have even been found along the muddy banks
of the Thames.
The city was rebuilt, only to be leveled again and again by fire. Read about
the destruction of six more London fires at Mental Floss.
The last conflagration listed was in 1794, so we can assume that
building codes and firefighting techniques are protecting the city from
such widespread fire now. Knock wood.
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