This last weekend was the 350th anniversary of The Great Fire of London. Unfortunately I wasn't in London and missed a programme of events including a domino-like sculpture that snaked its way through the City streets tracing the multiple paths of the fire; a fire garden outside Tate Modern; flames projected onto St Paul's Cathedral and this wooden sculpture of 17th century London.
This 120m long wooden sculpture of the London skyline was constructed by hundreds of schoolchildren and young people from the Inner London Boroughs. The models were put onto a couple of barges on the Thames so I was able to have a look at it last Friday before coming up to Manchester for the weekend.
On Sunday it was floated on the Thames and burned in a dramatic retelling of the story of the Great Fire. The fire which began in a bakery on Pudding Lane on the evening of 2nd Sept 1666 destroyed 13,200 houses, 87 parish churches, The Royal Exchange, Guildhall and St Paul's Cathedral. Closely packed buildings made from timber and pitch burnt easily.
(This image of the burning model was taken from the Londonist)
This 120m long wooden sculpture of the London skyline was constructed by hundreds of schoolchildren and young people from the Inner London Boroughs. The models were put onto a couple of barges on the Thames so I was able to have a look at it last Friday before coming up to Manchester for the weekend.
On Sunday it was floated on the Thames and burned in a dramatic retelling of the story of the Great Fire. The fire which began in a bakery on Pudding Lane on the evening of 2nd Sept 1666 destroyed 13,200 houses, 87 parish churches, The Royal Exchange, Guildhall and St Paul's Cathedral. Closely packed buildings made from timber and pitch burnt easily.
(This image of the burning model was taken from the Londonist)
How interesting. That would be spectacular to see. I bet it took a long time for all those little hands to make. And minutes to burn.
ReplyDeleteA dramatic end to the recreation of London
ReplyDeleteOh thank you for taking photos before it burnt! I watched the burning live on Youtube, but like others, was getting more and more frustrated that they were interviewing and showing videos without showing the actual structure burning so had to switch off. The idea was such a fantastic thing to do though.
ReplyDeleteWhat an amazing show this was!
ReplyDeletewow great event .
ReplyDeleteWhat a fascinating way to remember the Great Fire. I read a couple of interesting articles on the fire on the BBC website this week.
ReplyDeleteHello, what a wonderful sculpture of London's skyline. It is a dramatic end to have it burn down while floating on the river. Awesome photos. Happy Monday, enjoy your new week!
ReplyDeleteWow ! What an amazing reconstruction of the fire and to see it on the Thames must have been awesome ~ All wonderful photos!
ReplyDeleteWishing you smooth sailing days ~ ^_^
It was such a amazing display, and idea! Enjoyed seeing it on the news. Lucky you to see it 'before' the fire.
ReplyDeleteI didn't know about the Great Fire but now I know just where to go for more information. Thanks so much for the story. :-)
ReplyDeleteWell, there goes one of my future posts. At least you used your own photos. It would have been great to see the model burn. I spent about 20 minutes looking at this website, http://www.fireoflondon.org.uk/
ReplyDeleteGreat looking wooden sculpture. Wonderful shots of occasion.
ReplyDeleteSpectacular
ReplyDeleteThose structures made by so many children and people are so awesome that i felt it was a waste to just burn them. I wished it is just placed in a museum to show the original look of the old place before it was burned!
ReplyDeleteI heard about this on the radio! That's awesome that the old town was recreated - and the fire too.
ReplyDeleteFire has destroyed many a town in history! We worry about it here as our forests burn easily when they are dry. I'm glad that this fire was only a model!
ReplyDeleteI imagine the whole thing was a very telling way to teach and involve children in history.
ReplyDeleteI imagine the whole thing was a very telling way to teach and involve children in history.
ReplyDeleteNow I am angry that I missed that ! I should look more into what is going on in London. I could have come for a day, for the moment a return ticket is about 80 € ! I would be there at 9 am and can leave in the evening !
ReplyDeleteThe Great Fire in 1666 was always a fascinating piece of history linked to the Great Plague the year before. Building St Paul's Cathedral after the fire is very important result of the destruction of all the wooden buildings in the heart of London.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for this interesting post and the photos.
The wooden sculpture of the London skyline looks very cool. I always feel weight of the history in your country. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteThe wooden sculpture of the London skyline looks very cool. I always feel weight of the history in your country. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteHow very interesting. It must have need horrible when it happened.
ReplyDeleteI think it was great to get all the kids involved with making the model but it does seem a shame to destroy it all. Surely in this day and age they could have created an image of it burning and kept the model to show "before" the fire.
ReplyDeleteWhat an unusual way to commemorate that fire. I'd like to have seen the domino sculpture.
ReplyDeleteA very creative way to honour the event. The sculpture was so big and beautiful it must have been really sad to burn it after such hard work. Of course, not as sad as when the actual fire burned the houses.
ReplyDeleteWe saw a video of it when it was burning. It sort of gave me shivers as I could almost feel what it was like when it happened. I hadn't seen photos of it in the daylight before it burned so I was very interested in yours.
ReplyDeleteThat would have been amazing to see. We saw it on the news.
ReplyDeleteThis made the news here - a good way to 'remember' such an important event.
ReplyDeleteCheers - Stewart M - Melbourne