Great Fire of London

The Disaster Archive Dialogues · Oct 24, 2026 · 31m

Picture a city where the streets are so narrow, neighbors could reach across and touch hands from their upstairs windows. Now imagine that city packed with timber houses, pitch-covered roofs, and open flames in every home and shop. This was London before the fire.The year is sixteen sixty-six. London is alive with trade, noise, and ambition—its alleys twisting through centuries of growth, every corner stacked with goods, every workshop buzzing. But beneath the wealth and bustle, the city’s shape is a trap waiting to spring. Its prosperity rests on old bones: houses of wood, roofs of tar and…