September 04, 2009

London Burning III: Burn Down The Mission (1666)

Hell came to London.

On the west side of London stood St. Paul's Cathedral, the massive stone church that had been started after the last fire in 1087. The site had been a sacred spot since when London was a Roman fort: pagan megalith, temple of Diana, rebuilt several times after sundry fires and Viking sackings. Henry VIII's separation from the church and pushed the cathedral onto hard times, with its interior ornamentation stripped and some of the buildings in the churchyard destroyed or reused for shops, especially printers and booksellers.

King Charles' brother, James, who was leading the firefighting effort, had made a stand at the River Fleet, between the fire and the church, and also torn down enough houses to form a firebreak to the north. But an easterly gale pushed sparks across the river and outflanked his men, and by late afternoon, had jumped the firebreak as well.

The fire bore down St. Paul's, which by this time was crammed with refugees and their goods. The stone walls could resist the fire, but the church was undergoing restoration, and it was covered with wooden scaffolding.

That night, the wood caught fire. The flames spread. Inside, the timbered roof beams caught, and the lead roof melted down onto the papers. With a roar, St. Paul's resembled a funeral pyre, the flames visible for miles. The diarist, John Evelyn, reported that "the stones of Paul's flew like grenados, the melting lead running down the streets in a stream, and the very pavements glowing with fiery redness, so as no horse, nor man, was able to tread on them."

As for our Mr. Pepys, after he had secured the goods in his house, he turned to the Navy Office. The flames were approaching, and despairing of salvation, he penned a hasty message to the Duke of York, asking permission to use the crews from the shipyards down the Thames to create a firebreak from destroyed buildings:

SIR, The fire is now very neere us as well on Tower Streete as Fanchurch Street side, and we little hope of our escape but by this remedy, to ye want whereof we doe certainly owe ye loss of ye City namely, ye pulling down of houses, in ye way of ye fire. This way Sir W. Pen and myself have so far concluded upon ye practising, that he is gone to Woolwich and Deptford to supply himself with men and necessarys in order to the doeing thereof, in case at his returne our condition be not bettered and that he meets with his R. Hs. approbation, which I had thus undertaken to learn of you. Pray please to let me have this night (at whatever hour it is) what his R. Hs. directions are in this particular; Sir J. Minnes and Sir W. Batten having left us, we cannot add, though we are well assured of their, as well as all ye neighbourhood's concurrence.

Yr. obedient servnt.
S. P.

Sir W. Coventry,
Septr. 4, 1666.

To be concluded . . .

Born: François-Rene de Chateaubriand, poet, novelist, historian, explorer, statesman, St. Malo, France, 1768; Mary Renault, historical author, London, 1905; Richard Wright, novelist, Natchez, Miss., 1908; Paul Harvey, broadcaster, commentator, Tulsa, Okla., 1918; Alexander Liberman, editor, painter, sculptor, photographer, Kiev, Russia, 1912; Craig Claiborne, food author, critic, Sunflower, Miss., 1920; Joan Aiken, novelist, short-story writer, Rye, Sussex, 1924; Jane Brox, author, Dracut, Mass., 1956; Lisa Knopp, memoirist, essayist, Burlington, Iowa, 1956.

Died: Margery Williams Bianco, children's author, New York City, 1944; Louis Adamic, novelist, journalist, essayist, memoirist, Riegelsville, N.J., 1951; Georges Simenon, novelist, Lausanne, Switzerland, 1989; Thomas Tryon, actor, novelist, Los Angeles, Calif., 1991.

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The diarist, John Evelyn, reported that “the stones of Paul’s flew like grenados, the melting lead running down the streets in a stream, and the very pavements glowing with fiery redness, so as no horse, nor man, was able to tread on them.”

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