Committee of Safety, declaring for a free Parliament, and refusing to
pay or advance money to the Parliament, General Monk was ordered to
march with his army into the city, and the streets became planted with
soldiers; when several of the Aldermen and Common Council were taken
into custody, the whole body disqualified, and a new Common Council
ordered to be chosen; after which the city gates were broke and cut to
pieces, the portcullises taken down and destroyed, and the posts and
chains taken down.
After this, the city heartily and zealously joined with General Monk, in
bringing about the restoration. The Lord Mayor and Aldermen, on the 29th
of May 1660, went out to meet Charles II. in St. George’s Fields, where
the city had erected a magnificent pavilion, provided with a sumptuous
collation, of which that Prince having participated, was conducted
through the city by a very noble cavalcade, the Lord Mayor carrying the
sword bare-headed before the King, accompanied by the Duke of Buckingham
and General Monk, who were also bare. Upon this occasion the city was
adorned with the richest silks and tapestries, and the streets lined
with the city corporations and Trained Bands, while the conduits flowed
with wine, and the windows, balconies, and scaffolds were crouded with
an infinite number of spectators.
In the year 1663, King Charles II. granted the city a confirmation of
all their former charters, privileges, liberties, rights and customs;
and the next year the city, in return, advanced several considerable
sums for his Majesty, to enable him to carry on a war with the Dutch,
for which the citizens received the thanks of both Houses of Parliament.
About the beginning of May 1665, one of the most terrible plagues that
ever was inflicted on this, or perhaps any other kingdom, broke out in
this city: and as this was happily the last visitation of this kind, it
may be proper to give a short account of its rise and progress.
The week wherein this most dreadful distemper was first discovered, it
carried off nine persons, whereby the citizens were so greatly alarmed,
that an universal dread diffused itself amongst people of all ranks: but
the week after, the number, according to the bill of mortality, being
reduced to three, the fears of the citizens were greatly alleviated. The
next week, however, the number increasing to fourteen, and progressively
to forty-three, the people were struck with consternation, and many of
them had thoughts of leaving the city: but in the month of June, the
number having gradually increased to 470 a week, the nobility, gentry,
and principal citizens fled for safety, all being instantly in an
amazing hurry, and the city emptying itself into the country, the
streets and roads were excessively crouded with carriages and
passengers. In July the bill increasing to 2010, all houses were shut
up, the streets deserted, and scarce any thing to be seen therein but
grass growing, innumerable fires made to purify the air, coffins,
pest-carts, red crosses upon doors, with the inscription of _Lord, have
mercy upon us!_ and poor women in tears, with dismal aspects, and woeful
lamentations, carrying their infants to the grave! and scarce any other
sounds to be heard than those incessantly repeated from the windows,
_Pray for us!_ and the dismal call of, _Bring out your dead!_ with the
groans of the dying, and the melancholy tolling of bells for bodies
ready for the grave! But what greatly added to this distressful scene,
was, the spectator’s own reflections, that he himself should perhaps
soon make one among the dismal objects, whose groans resounded in his
ears.
Under these deplorable circumstances, the citizens, when in the greatest
want of spiritual guides, were forsaken by their parochial Ministers,
when those who had been just before ejected from the pulpits,
considering their indispensible duty in this dreadful visitation, were
induced, though contrary to law, to supply their place; upon which the
people, laying aside the distinction of churchmen and dissenters,
joyfully resorted to church, where the concourse was so exceeding great,
that these non-conformist Ministers were frequently obliged to clamber
over the pews to get to the pulpit; and if ever preaching had a better
effect than ordinary, it was at this time, when the people listened with
the utmost eagerness, and attended as if their salvation depended upon
every word they heard.
In the month of September Death rode triumphant, for the burials then
amounted in one week to 6988; but the week after the bill falling to
6544, gave some glimmering hopes that this dreadful distemper was past
its crisis: however, the great increase the week following to 7165,
re-immerged the survivors into an abyss of horror and despair; for now
they were struck with the dreadful apprehensions, that in a few days the
living would not be sufficient to bury the dead. They were, however,
happily mistaken; for after this, the contagion gradually decreased,
till it pleased the Almighty to restore this desolate city to its
pristine state of health; after the direful ravages of this distemper
had swept off 68,596 persons, which, together with those who died of
other diseases, made the bill of mortality for this year amount to
97,306. _Echard’s Hist._ _Vincent’s God’s terrible voice._
As to the natural causes of this pestilence, Physicians differ greatly;
however, Dr. Baynard observes, that during the havock made by it, there
was a general calmness and serenity of weather, without the least wind
or rain; that through the great scarcity of nitre in the air, the fires
in the streets were with great difficulty made to burn; and by its
extreme rarefaction, which was doubtless increased by these fires, the
birds panted for breath, and those of the larger sort were observed to
fly more heavily than usual.
The above calamity was scarcely ceased, and those who had fled returned
to their houses, when on Sunday the 2d of September 1666, a dreadful
fire broke out at one in the morning, in the house of Mr. Farryner, a
baker, in Pudding lane; a time when the eyes and senses of all were
locked in sleep. The house was a wooden building pitched on the outside,
as were all the rest in the lane, which was exceeding narrow, and by the
jutting over of the several stories, the buildings on each side almost
met at the top; and in this manner were built most of the houses in this
metropolis. The house in which the fire began, containing much brush and
faggot wood, the fire soon got ahead, and furiously seized on the
neighbouring houses on all sides, running four ways at once; it
presently set New Fish street all in a flame; while another branch
raging down Pudding lane, laid hold on Thames street, the repository of
all combustibles, as hemp, flax, rosin, oil, butter, pitch, tar,
brimstone, cordage, hops, sugar, brandy, wood, and coals; where dividing
itself, it ran both eastward and westward with inexpressible fury, into
the adjacent lanes, consuming all before it; and its two main branches
meeting at London bridge, soon reduced all the buildings upon it to
ashes, together with the water engines under it; by which means the
people were deprived of the assistance of that element; for the New
River water was not then laid into those parts.
The pulling down houses every way, at some distance, was first proposed;
and this was the only method that could have been of any service in
stopping the progress of the flames; for had there been water, the fire
was too fierce to be mastered by engines, or to suffer any body to work
near it; but this was objected to, and while the affair was debated, the
flames spread still farther.
Unhappily they were increased by a violent easterly wind; and that day
and the following night spread up Gracechurch street, and downwards from
Cannon street to the water side, as far as the Three Cranes.
The people in all parts were distracted at seeing the progress of the
fire, and by the care of carrying off their goods. However, many
attempts were now made to prevent its spreading, by pulling down houses,
and making great intervals; but not having time to remove the materials,
the fire seized upon the timber, boards, laths, and rubbish, and
extended itself over these spaces to the neighbouring houses; raging in
a bright flame all Monday and Tuesday, without any endeavours to stop it
proving effectual; though his Majesty, the Duke of York, and great
numbers of the nobility and gentry came with the guards, who were
employed in endeavouring to extinguish it.
The wind, however, slackened a little on Tuesday night, when the fire,
meeting at the Temple with brick buildings, it by little and little lost
its force on that side, so that on Wednesday morning a stop was put to
it on the west, at the Temple church, and also at Holborn bridge and Pye
corner. On the north, it stopped at Aldersgate, Cripplegate, near the
north end of Basinghall street, and in Coleman street: on the east, at
the south corner of Bishopsgate street and Leadenhall street, at the
church in Fenchurch street, and at the Tower dock, after its having
consumed all the buildings within these limits, quite down to the water
side.
On Thursday the flames were extinguished; but that evening the fire
burst out again at the Temple, by the falling of some sparks upon a pile
of wooden buildings; but upon blowing up the houses around it with
gunpowder, it was extinguished the next morning.
By this dreadful conflagration were consumed 400 streets and lanes,
13,200 houses, the cathedral church of St. Paul, 86 parish churches, 6
chapels, the Royal Exchange, Blackwell Hall, and the Custom House,
several hospitals and libraries, 52 of the Companies halls, and a vast
number of other stately edifices, together with three of the city gates,
four stone bridges, and four prisons; the loss of which, with that of
the merchandize and houshold furniture, amounted, according to the best
calculation, to ten millions, seven hundred and thirty thousand, five
hundred pounds: but it is amazing, that in this terrible devastation,
only six persons lost their lives by the fire.
As by the dreadful ravages of the plague the preceding year, the city
was depopulated, and the houses deprived of their inhabitants, so by
this conflagration the surviving citizens were deprived of their
habitations, and many thousands of them compelled to retire to the
fields, with such of their effects as they were able to save, where they
continued destitute of the conveniencies, and almost all the necessary
accommodations of life; lying in the open air, till tents and slight
wooden huts could be erected, to secure them from the inclemencies of
the weather. Meanwhile the King had the goodness to order a considerable
quantity of naval bread to be immediately distributed among the poor,
and a proclamation was wisely published, ordering the neighbouring
Justices to encourage the bringing in of all sorts of provisions.
It has been much disputed, whether this dismal catastrophe was
occasioned by accident or design. An attempt was first made to fix it
upon the dissenters, who suffered as much by this calamity, as any other
body of men; but having not the least colour for such a pretence, it
dropped of course; and the English being then at war with the French and
the Dutch, the latter were charged with concerting this diabolical
scheme; but this was found to be only an injurious aspersion: however,
Robert Hubert, a Frenchman, of the Romish church, confessed, that he, at
the sollicitation of one Stephen Piedloe, set fire to the baker’s house
in Pudding lane, by means of a fire-ball which he fixed to the end of a
long pole, and lighting it a match, put it in at a window; and that for
this villainy he was to be rewarded on his return to France; but it is
generally allowed, that this man was at that time disordered in his
senses; and great pains have been taken to prove that he had no hand in
that calamity: however, he was condemned and executed, though he
surrendered himself, and though there was no other evidence of his guilt
than that of his own confession.
It is observable, that the preceding spring and summer had been the
dryest in the memory of man; whereby the houses, which were all built of
wood, and without party walls, were prepared, as it were, by Heaven, to
become fuel for this terrible conflagration, which, together with the
east wind abovementioned, might possibly be alone sufficient to reduce
the city to a heap of ashes.
But whatever the unhappy citizens of London might then suffer; it is
evident, that this was one of the greatest blessings that could have
happened for the good of posterity; for, instead of very narrow and
incommodious streets; instead of dark, irregular, and ill contrived
wooden houses, with their several stories projecting over, obstructing
the circulation of the air, and harbouring those noxious particles that
occasioned the frequent return of the plague, and often fires of the
most dreadful kind; by the modern way of building, and the enlarging of
many of the streets, offensive vapours are expelled; and this, added to
the cleanliness produced by the great quantities of the water brought
into London by the New River, has freed this city from all pestilential
symptoms for above ninety years together.
The reduction of this great and opulent city to a heap of rubbish,
greatly affected the whole nation; and the King desiring it should be
now erected with greater magnificence, uniformity, and safety than
before, prohibited for some time the rebuilding of the houses; and the
Judges were ordered by Parliament to hear and determine all disputes
between landlords, tenants, and lessees, concerning the rebuilding and
repairing of houses, &c. without fee or reward.
London indeed might now have been rebuilt in such a manner, as to have
exceeded in beauty all the cities upon earth; and this would have been
the case, had either of the following plans been followed. The first was
formed by Sir Christopher Wren, who, pursuant to the royal commands,
traced over the great plain of ashes and ruins, and thence formed his
plan of a new city, free from all the deformities and inconveniencies of
the old one; by enlarging the streets and lanes, and rendering them as
nearly parallel to each other as possible; by seating all the parish
churches in a conspicuous manner; by forming the most public places into
large piazzas, the centers of eight ways; by uniting the halls of the
twelve Companies into one regular square annexed to Guildhall; by making
a spacious and commodious key along the whole bank of the river, without
any interruptions, from Black Friars to the Tower, with some large docks
for barges deep laden.
The streets were to be of three magnitudes; the three principal leading
straight through the city, and one or two cross streets to be at least
ninety feet wide; others sixty feet, and the lanes about thirty feet,
excluding all narrow dark alleys, thoroughfairs, and courts.
The Exchange to stand free in the middle of a piazza, and to be the
center of the town, from whence the streets should proceed to all the
principal parts of the city; the building to be after the form of a
Roman forum, with double porticos.
Many streets were also to radiate upon the bridge. Those of the first
and second magnitude to be carried on as straight as possible, and to
center in four or five areas surrounded with piazzas.
The churches were to be designed according to the best forms for
capacity and hearing; and those of the larger parishes adorned with
porticos and lofty ornamental towers and steeples: but all church yards,
gardens, and unnecessary vacuities, and all trades that use great fires,
or yield noisome smells, were to be placed out of the town.
This plan, which that great architect laid before the King and the House
of Commons, is thus explained: from that part of Fleet street which
remained unburned, a straight street of 90 feet wide was to extend, and,
passing by the south side of Ludgate, was to end gracefully in a piazza
on Tower hill.
In the middle of Fleet street was to be a circular area surrounded with
a piazza, the center of eight ways, where, at one station, were to meet
the following streets.
The first, straight forward, quite thro’ the city: the second, obliquely
towards the right hand, to the beginning of the key that was to be run
from Bridewell dock to the Tower: the third, obliquely on the left, to
Smithfield: the fourth, straight on the right, to the Thames: the fifth,
straight on the left, to Hatton Garden and Clerkenwell: the sixth,
straight backwards to Temple Bar: the seventh, obliquely on the right,
to the walks of the Temple: and the eighth, obliquely on the left, to
Cursitor’s alley.
Passing down Fleet street, at the bottom of which the ditch was to be
rendered a beautiful canal, passable by as many bridges as there were
streets to cross it, and leaving Ludgate prison on the left side of the
street; where a triumphal arch was to be formed, instead of the gate, in
honour of King Charles II. the founder of the new city: St. Paul’s was
to be situated where it is at present, and surrounded by a triangular
piazza.
On leaving that cathedral on the left, a straight street was to extend
directly to the Tower, adorned all the way, at proper distances, with
parish churches; and leaving that edifice to the right, the other great
branch was to lead to the Royal Exchange, which was to be seated in the
middle of a piazza, between two great streets; the one from Ludgate
leading to the south front, and another from Holborn, thro’ Newgate, and
thence straight to the north front of the Exchange.
This noble scheme was demonstrated to be practicable, without the
infringement of any man’s property; for, by leaving out the
church-yards, &c. which were to be removed out of town, there would have
been sufficient room both for the augmentation of the streets, the
disposition of the churches, halls, and all public buildings, and to
have given every proprietor full satisfaction: for though few of them
would have been seated upon exactly the very same ground they possessed
before the fire, yet none would have been thrust at any considerable
distance from it: but the obstinacy of great part of the citizens, in
refusing to recede from the right, of rebuilding their houses on the old
foundations, was an unsurmountable obstacle to the execution of this
noble scheme. _Parentalia._
Soon after this, Sir John Evelyn produced another plan, in which he
proposed that some of the deepest vallies should be filled up, or at
least made with less sudden declivities. That a new and spacious key
should run from the Tower to the Temple, and extend itself as far as the
low water mark; by which means the channel of the river would be kept
constantly full; the irregularity and deformity of the stairs, and the
dirt and nastiness left at every ebb would also be prevented.
To create variety in the streets, he also proposed, that there should be
breaks and enlargements, by spacious openings at proper distances,
surrounded with piazzas, and uniformly built with beautiful fronts; and
that some of these openings should be square, some circular, and others
oval. He would have none of the principal streets less than an hundred
feet in breadth, nor any of the narrowest less than thirty. He would
have three or four large streets between the Thames and London Wall,
reckoning that of Cheapside for the chief, which might extend from
Temple Bar to the upper part of Tower hill, or to Crutched Friars,
bearing the cathedral of St. Paul’s upon a noble eminence.
Among these he would have the parochial churches, which he thought might
be reduced to half the number, as some of the parishes were then no less
than two hundred times larger than others: and these he would have so
interspersed as to adorn the profile of the city at all its avenues.
Most of them he would have in the center of spacious areas, adorned with
piazzas, &c. so as to be seen from several streets, and others at the
abutments and extremities of them.
About the church piazzas, the stationers and booksellers were to have
their shops, and the Ministers their houses; as about that of St. Paul’s
was to be the episcopal palace, the Dean and Prebends houses, St. Paul’s
school, a public library, the prerogative and first fruits office, all
which were to be built at an ample distance from the cathedral, and with
more stately fronts, in honour of that august pile. In some of these
openings, surrounded with piazzas, he proposed to have the several
markets. In others the coaches might wait; and in some might be public
fountains constantly playing.
The College of Physicians he would have in one of the best parts of the
town, incircled with a handsome piazza, for the dwellings of those
learned persons, with the surgeons, apothecaries, and druggists in the
streets about them; for he would have all of a mystery in the same
quarters: those of the better sort of the shopkeepers in the sweetest
and most eminent streets and piazzas; and the artificers in the more
ordinary houses, in the intermediate and narrow passages; the taverns
and victualling houses were to be placed amongst them, and be built
accordingly; but so as to preserve the most perfect uniformity.
Between the piazzas, market places, and churches, might be placed the
halls for the Companies; and these, if fronted with stone, and adorned
with statues and other ornaments, would infinitely inrich the streets,
and render this city as famous for architecture of the most refined
gusto, as any city in Europe; among which should be distinguished
Guildhall, by its being more pompous and magnificent than the rest: near
this edifice he would have a magnificent house for the Lord Mayor, and
others for the two Sheriffs.
The Royal Exchange he thought might front the Thames about the
Steelyard, in an area surrounded on three sides with piazzas, with
vaults for warehouses underneath; and for such merchandize as could not
be well preserved under ground, might be erected buildings fronting the
Thames on the other side of the river, with wharfs before and yards
behind for the placing of cranes; the laying of timber, coals, &c. and
other gross commodities, while the key over against it should be built
for the owners, and the dwellings of the principal merchants: but if the
warehouses must needs be on this side, they should be made to front
Thames street rather than the river, because of the dull and heavy
aspect of those buildings.
The little bay at Queenhithe should have the key continued around it,
and cloistered about for the marketmen and fruiterers; and where the
wharf then was, a stately avenue was to extend to St. Paul’s.
Four great streets were to extend along the city: the first from Fleet
ditch, (which was to be formed into a noble canal) to the Tower: the
second, from the Strand to the most eastern part of the city, where
should be a noble triumphal arch in honour of Charles II. the third,
from Newgate to Aldgate: and the fourth and shortest, from Aldersgate to
Bishopsgate. He proposed that five principal cross streets should extend
from Black Friars stairs into West Smithfield; from the Thames east of
St. Paul’s to Aldersgate; from Queenhithe to Cripplegate; and from the
Royal Exchange to Moorgate: that the street from the bridge should
extend to Bishopsgate: that one from Billingsgate should extend near as
far: and one from the Custom house to Aldgate.
Instead of houses on the bridge, he proposed to have it adorned with a
substantial iron baluster, decorated, at convenient distances, with
statues on their pedestals, with a footway on each side.
The hospitals, workhouses to employ the poor, and the prisons, being
built and re-indowed at the public expence, were to be disposed of in
convenient quarters of the city: the hospitals would become one of the
principal streets; but the prisons, and court for the trial of
criminals, might still be built near the entrances of the city.
The gates were to be in the form of triumphal arches, adorned with
statues, relievos, and apposite inscriptions, not obstructed by sheds,
or mean houses joined to them.