The history of london

London within the wall was still a mediaeval city in appearance and much besides, when the fire broke out. Some rebuilding had taken place under James I and in the early years of Charles I; little under the Commonwealth; the main aspect was that now popularly recognized as „Elizabethan.” Few of these Timbered houses survive, and almost none in the actual fire area. The streets were almost impassable to wheeled traffic and would long ago have had to be widened, had not the Thames been the great highway. Nowhere did the timber-framed houses crowd more closely than by the river, where the outbreak began.

In Pudding lane - a dark, cobbled, narrow street sloping steeplyto the Thames – John Farynor, the king`s baker, had gone to bed at 10o`clock after his day`s trading was done.at 2 A.M. his man was roused by a choking sensation and found the house full of smoke. The baker, his wife, daughter and his man escaped over the roofs. The maid remained and became the first victim of the fire. Such was the origin of the firein the opinion of Walter Bell, who wrote the standard work on the subject. At the time popular opinion demanded a culprit and fixed on papists and Frevchmen. The monument recorded from 1681 to 1685 and again from 1689 to 1830 the „perpetual remembrance of that most dreadful burning of this Protestant city, begun and carried on by ye Popish faction.”

The fire spread slowly at first. A strong wind was blowing from the northeast. By eight o`clock London bridge and the houses on it were brazing. Live flakes were carried on the wind and the fire bagan to creep back from the river. That night all London saw such a glare as it had never known. The first day had carried the frontier of flame nearly to Queenhithe, on the river bank, and northward to Cannon street and East Cheap. On the afternoon of the socond day the fire was raging about the Royal exchange, Lombard street and Cornhill, among the dwellings and shops of rich brokers and merchants. On the third day Guildhall was burning, the custom house and the Royal exchange were destroyed, and fire broke out on the roof of St. Paul`s. The wind fell during the night, and the fire was out except for patches of flame on the fourth day. Its limit was in the Temple, where James, duke of York, had been put in command of soldiers and seamen.

The record on the north side of the monument states that the fire consumed 89 churches, 13 200 houses and 400 streets.

 

               

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

               

                

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                Conclusion

Conjecture and legend have built up a story of the origins of London which will not bear the scrutiny of history or archaeology. Much new material was brought to light about Roman London after World War II; but no structural evidence of a pre-Roman London was produced. The piles of early dwellings in such places as the bed of the Waldrook stream cannot be attributed to a „Celtic capital.” Excavation made there in 1949 for a new building went down to the blackened piles supporting successive levels of London throught 19 centuries. Its history became visible in three layers of burnt ashes representing the sack of London by Boudicca (Boadicea), a fire in Roman times and the GreattFire of London in 1666. on top of all were the rubble and ashes of World War II. The earliest traces of occupation were Roman, of the 1^st century A.D. In another part of the City, just outside the Roman town hall near Cripplegate, postwar excavation showed that there had been occupation by a nomad community with primitive habits. It was temprid to guess, in the company of earlier historians, that these had been early London, the possible precursors of Celtic inhabitants: did they not live in a swampy region, their dwellings hardly raised above the surface of a region still known as Moorgate? But archaeology showed that they were squatters with gypsy habits and hardly earlier than the Norman conquest. History is silent also. There are no relevant Celtic documents. But its earliest recorded form is the latinized Londinium, and the few reference to it in classical literature relate to the years of Roman con questor dominance.

 

       

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

            

          List of literature

 

1.Morton A. L. „A People`s History of England,” Seven Seas Publishers, Berlin, 1974.

2.Журналы „Англия”

3.Журналы „Лондон”

4.Зайцева С.Д. „Англия в далеком прошлом,” Москва, Просвещение, 1981.

5.The Mettiam – Webster Book of World Histories”