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The '''Monument to the Great Fire of London''', known simply as '''The Monument''', is a tall stone Roman Doric column (202 ft high) next to the northern end of London Bridge.  
The '''Monument to the Great Fire of London''', known simply as '''The Monument''', is a tall stone Roman Doric column (202 ft high) next to the northern end of London Bridge designed by [[Christopher Wren]].  
[[File:monument2.jpg|right|thumb|200px|''The Monument'']]
[[File:monument2.jpg|right|thumb|200px|''The Monument'']]


Revision as of 11:49, 7 January 2010

The Monument to the Great Fire of London, known simply as The Monument, is a tall stone Roman Doric column (202 ft high) next to the northern end of London Bridge designed by Christopher Wren.

The Monument

History

After the Great Fire of London which lasted for three days from September 2, 1666, the first Rebuilding Act, which was passed in 1669, claimed that "the better to preserve the memory of this dreadful visitation", a column made of brass or stone is to be set up on Fish Street Hill, near the bakery where the fire began. In 1671 the city commissioned the building of this memorial as a reflection on the tragic event. In order to build am adequate monument, famous architect Sir Christopher Wren was chosen to plan and design it. At this time, Wren was General Surveyor to King Charles II and had already started St Paul's Cathedral. It was decided to install a single Doric column with an urn of flames at the top of the 202-foot-high pillar. The height of The Monument is the same as the distance from the site on which it stands to the baker’s home where the fire began. The column was completed in 1677, and in accordance with Wren's original intention, was at first used as a place for certain experiments of the Royal Society. Vibrations caused by traffic proved too heavy for the success of these experiments, so they were discontinued. After that the Monument became a place of historic interest, providing visitors with an overview across London from a height of about 160 feet, being the level of the public gallery.


Architecture

On 4th October 1677, Dr. Gale (master of St. Paul's School and later Dean of York), was requested by the Court of Aldermen to prepare an appropriate inscription for the new pillar. His inscription, having been approved by the King, was presented to Court on 22nd July. Altogether there are three Latin inscriptions covering three panels of the pedestal. The North side records the City's destruction, the South deals with its restoration, and the East records the years in which the building of the Monument was started, continued and finished. The west side shows a sculptured design by Caius Cibber (father of the playwright Colley Cibber).

North Panel

North Panel

"In the year of Christ 1666, on the 2nd September, at a distance eastward from this place of 202 feet, which is the height of this column, a fire broke out in the dead of night, which, the wind blowing devoured even distant buildings, and rushed devastating through every quarter with astonishing swiftness and noise. It consumed 89 churches, gates, the Guildhall, 'public edifices, hospitals, schools, libraries, a great number of blocks of buildings, 13,200 houses, 400 streets. Of the 26 wards, it utterly destroyed 15, and left 8 mutilated and half-burnt. The ashes of the City, covering as many as 436 acres, extended on one side from the Tower along the bank of the Thames to the church of the Templars, on the other side from the north-east along the walls to the head of Fleet-ditch. Merciless to the wealth and estates of the citizens, it was harmless to their lives, so as throughout to remind us of the final destruction of the world by fire. The havoc was swift. A little space of time saw the same city most prosperous and no longer in being. On the third day, when it had now altogether vanquished all human counsel and resource, at the bidding, as we may well believe of heaven, the fatal fire stayed its course and everywhere died out. *[But Popish frenzy, which wrought such horrors, is not yet quenched.] * These last words were added in 1681 and finally deleted in 1830.

South Panel

South Panel

"Charles the Second, son of Charles the Martyr, King of Great Britain, France and Ireland, defender of the faith, a most gracious prince, commiserating the deplorable state of things, whilst the ruins were yet smoking provided for the comfort of his citizens, and the ornament of his city; remitted their taxes, and referred the petitions of the magistrates and inhabitants of London to the Parliament; who immediately passed an Act, that public works should be restored to greater beauty, with public money, to be raised by an imposition on coals; that churches, and the cathedral of St. Paul's, should be rebuilt from their foundations, with all magnificence; that the bridges, gates, and prisons should be new made, the sewers cleansed, the streets made straight and regular, such as were steep levelled and those too narrow made wider, markets and shambles removed to separate places. They also enacted, that every house should be built with party-walls, and all raised of an equal height in front, and that all house walls should be strengthened with stone or brick; and that no man should delay building beyond the space of seven years. Furthermore, he procured an Act to settle beforehand the suits which should arise respecting boundaries, he also established an annual service of intercession, and caused this column to be erected as a perpetual memorial to posterity. Haste is seen everywhere, London rises again, whether with greater speed or greater magnificence is doubtful, three short years complete that which was considered the work of an age."

Sources

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