Great Fire of London

A giant replica of 17th-century London will be set ablaze in the city to mark the 350th anniversary of the devastating Great Fire of London.

The 1666 inferno destroyed most of the walled inner city dating back to Roman times — a bustling, congested maze of tightly-packed wooden houses — and forced London to rebuild anew from the ashes.

Now the city is looking back to when it lay in ruins — with a few shuddering sights to remind Londoners of the peril faced by their predecessors.

The Great Fire of London broke out in Thomas Farrinor's bakery on Pudding Lane shortly after midnight on September 2, 1666, and gradually spread through the city before finally being extinguished on September 5.

The London's Burning program of events commemorating the disaster culminates in the torching of a 120-metre-long wooden replica of old London — built by US "burn artist" David Best — moored in the River Thames to prevent the fire from spreading again. (photo below)

"It will look spectacular," said Helen Marriage, director of creative events company Artichoke, which is staging the London's Burning events.

During London's Burning festival flames are being projected onto the dome of St Paul's Cathedral and 23,000 breeze blocks arranged as a domino run will be felled to show how the fire spread through the city.

I've always wanted to create a unit of work on The Diary of Samuel Pepys who lived through the Great Fire of London but I've never been able to find a student friendly version of the book that could be read as a serial. The BBC has a great website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primaryhistory/famouspeople/samuel_pepys/ with loads of resources on it and there are a few movies available on YouTube ( audio versions as well) but I'm yet to find a suitable class serial.Teachers in London will be lucky to have this fantastic event going on and I'm sure they have access to lots of great resources.

I took this photo in Spotlight last week ( yes it was still August!) 

Very disturbing!