Pudding Lane 29th January

Pudding Lane is a very small street tucked away in a corner near St Pauls Cathedral.The Monument is a memorial to the damage caused by the Great Fire of London in 1666. It was designed by Christopher Wren and Robert Hooke, and built between 1671 and 1677.
It measures 203-feet from top to bottom – the exact distance from its base to Pudding Lane, where the fire broke out. A flaming copper urn sits upon the top, to symbolise the flames. The ruins of the city were 1.8 km².  It consumed 400 streets, 13,200 dwelling-houses, 89 churches, 4 of the city gates and 16 people.  The fire began in the night on 2nd September in the bakehouse of Thomas Farynor who was the baker for King Charles II.
The cost of the fire was £10m, and at a time when London’s annual income was only £12,000. Many people were financially ruined and debtors' prisons became over crowded. 

There were some benefits of the fire. One of these was that the black plague which had killed many people was eliminated by the burning down of diseased, rat-infested properties. The new city was planned by Christopher Wren and rebuilt using stone over the following 30 years.