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London After the Great Fire

By Dr John Schofield
Plans to rebuild the City

Within a few days of the Fire, several proposals with sketch-plans for radical reorganisation of the City's streets were put forward, including one by Christopher Wren, but they had no chance of success, because so many interests were involved and the City wanted to get back on its feet quickly. One of them, by Richard Newcourt, which proposed a rigid grid with churches in squares, was however later adopted for the laying-out of Philadelphia, USA. Then, in October 1666, King Charles and the City appointed Commissioners, including Wren, to regulate the rebuilding. The Commissioners issued proclamations concerning the width of streets and the height, materials and dimensions of secular buildings. And in February 1667 a Fire Court started hearing many competing claims from owners and tenants as the rebuilding began.

'...efforts to create a city with fine new public buildings and spaces did not go much further.'

Some streets were widened or straightened, bottlenecks eased, and one new street built by carving through private properties: King Street which led from Guildhall to the wharf, (the street's line was much later extended over the river by Southwark Bridge). Markets in the streets were moved into new special market halls. But efforts to create a city with fine new public buildings and spaces did not go much further. There were no new public squares. The four affected gates (Ludgate, Newgate, Moorgate and Temple Bar) were rebuilt in place, even though they were now decorative rather than useful, and all the gates were removed in the 1760s. A New Quay, 40 feet wide and from Blackfriars to the Tower, was intended; but although a space was cleared back from the pre-Fire river wall for this purpose, it became gradually obscured by cranes, sheds and then permanent private warehouses. A separate scheme to make the Fleet into a canal with its own warehouses and vaults got under way but also failed after a few decades.

Published: 2001-06-01

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