The Recovery

St. Paul´s Cathedral

           After the devastating fire that burned five sixths of the walled area of the oldest part of London, the only thing that was left for the Londoners was to start from scratch.
           From everything that was destroyed, only the churches, made of stone, and especially their towers, were left. Consequently, at least 65,000 people became homeless due to the Fire. These people had lost eveything, so they could not afford renting a place to stay in the unburnt part of the city for long, so, after a few days these people started to move to the villages sorrounding London. Therefore, the city lost a lot of its population in very little time.
           When the rebuilding of the city started, many streets were widened or straightened. However, no new public squares were built. Also, the four affected gates, the Ludget, Newgate, the Moorgate and Temple Bar were rebuilt, although now they were more decorative than useful. Inspite of the rebuilting of these gates, in the 1760s all the gates were removed. In the following decades, fewer houses were built than the ones before the Fire. Gran residences were built for merchants and aldermen.

Temple Bar Gate

          The courtyard houses which were in mayor streets had a limit of four floors of height. In contrast,  before the Fire, these houses were six floors tall. Houses in ordinary streets were limited to three storeys.
           Another mayor aspect that changed was the material they used when building houses. Before the Fire, they used wood in most cases; now, the started to use brick, and when building important houses, they would sometimes use stone in their doorways and windows. Theses houses were now considered to be more sanitary, and to last longer than the ones from before the Fire. However, one thing that hadn´t changed relating to houses was the distribution of the rooms. The outside of the houses had a little architectual influence from France and Holland.

Medieval London before the Fire

            As a conclusion, we can say that the Fire was a devastating one for the city of London and its habitants. However, it also gave the oportunity to create a new, modern city within the medieval city, and with influences of the time. Also, the Londoners were able to improve their lifestyle by making the city safer than before. 

London after 1666