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 Engravings from the original picture by Old Griffer showing the fire at its height in Ludgate with St Paul's in the distance
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The Great Fire of London "Ye parishe was burnt downe, but sixteene houses in ye brode place by newe street."The Great Fire began on Sunday September 2nd 1666 and the worried residents of the parish watched in growing alarm as the fire spread towards and eventually overwhelmed them on Tuesday 4th. St Bride's had acquired its own fire-engine but had failed to keep the machine 'scoured, oyled and trimmed'. Soldiers destroyed houses about Fleet Bridge in the vain hope that the Fleet River might stay the flames' advance. But the relentless east wind drove the fire on: one onlooker described how it "rushed like a torrent down Ludgate Hill". All was consumed. The destruction of the medieval St Bride's was so complete that no attempt was made to use the ruins for service, as was done at St Paul's and elsewhere. On Friday one famous local resident made this entry in his diary:
September 7. - Up by five o'clock; and blessed be God!, find all well; and by water to Paul's Wharfe. Walked thence, and saw al the towne burned; and a miserable sight of Paul's church, with all the roof fallen, and the body of the quire fallen into St Fayth's; Paul's School also, Ludgate and Fleete-street, my father's house (in Salisbury Court) and the church (St Bride's), and a good part of the Temple the like.
Two weeks before the conflagration a new vicar had been inducted at St Bride's. The hapless Paul Boston was to possess a church for only two weeks of his tenure though he lived long enough to see the foundations laid for Wren's design. In his will Paul Boston left £50 for communion plate and the silver gilt vessels bought with the money remain prized possessions. |
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