A major fire that devastated London in September 1666. The fire began in a baker’s shop and, fanned by an east wind, raged for four days, destroying 87 churches, including St Paul’s, and more than 13,000 houses mostly built from wood. It was stopped by blowing up buildings in its path. There are eyewitness accounts in the diaries of Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn. Plans for a modern city with wide streets and squares were abandoned, but Sir Christopher Wren rebuilt St Paul’s and a number of other churches and public buildings, and designed the Monument (1677), which commemorates the fire.