Critical Care Intravenous Infusion Drug Handbook 3rd

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ontents

Sources, ix Dopamine (Intropin), 107

Drotrecogin Alfa (Xigris), 115
Abbreviations, xi Epinephrine (Adrenalin) Injection, 123
Drug Calculation Formulae, xv Eptifibatide (Integrilin), 128
Esmolol (Brevibloc), 133
SECTION I: Critical Care Intravenous Infusion Drugs— Fenoldopam (Corlopam), 136
Quick Mixing Guide, 1 Haloperidol (Haldol), 139
Quick Reference Infusion Drug Compatibility and Heparin, 141
Incompatibility Chart, 9 Ibutilide (Corvert), 148
Immune Globulin Intravenous (Carimune, Gamimune,
SECTION II: Intravenous Infusion Drugs, 53 Gammagard, Gammar-P, Gamunex, Iveegam,
Abciximab (ReoPro), 54 Octagam, Panglobulin, Polygam, Sandoglobulin,
Alteplase (Activase), 59 Venoglobulin-S), 150
Aminophylline (Theophylline), 63 Inamrinone (Inocor), 154
Amiodarone (Cordarone), 67 Infliximab (Remicade), 161
Argatroban (Acova), 73 Insulin Drip, 165
Atracurium (Tracrium), 77 Isoproterenol (Isuprel), 168
Bivalirudin (Angiomax), 80 Labetalol (Trandate), 173
Cisatracurium (Nimbex), 85 Lepirudin (Refludan), 177
Conivaptan (Vaprisol), 89 Lidocaine (Xylocaine), 181
Dexmedetomidine (Precedex), 92 Lorazepam (Ativan), 185
Diltiazem (Cardizem), 95 Magnesium Sulfate (MgSO4), 189
Dobutamine (Dobutrex), 99 Midazolam (Versed), 193

vii
Milrinone (Primacor), 196 Pulseless Electrical Activity (PEA): Clinical Signs and
Nesiritide (Natrecor), 201 Treatment, 277
Nicardipine (Cardene), 204 Symptomatic Bradycardia, 283
Nitroglycerin, 208 Narrow QRS Tachycardia, 286
Nitroprusside (Nipride), 212 Atrial Fibrillation/Atrial Flutter Algorithm, 291
Norepinephrine (Levophed), 224 Wolff-Parkinson-White (WPW) Syndrome Algorithm, 296
Octreotide (Sandostatin), 232 Sustained Monomorphic Ventricular Tachycardia, 300
Pantoprazole (Protonix), 234 Polymorphic Ventricular Tachycardia, 304
Phenylephrine (Neo-Synephrine), 237 Wide QRS Tachycardia of Unknown Origin, 309
Potassium Chloride (KCl), 240 Initial Assessment and General Treatment of the Patient
Procainamide (Pronestyl), 245 with an Acute Coronary Syndrome (ACS), 313
Propofol (Diprivan), 249 Management of ST-Segment Elevation Myocardial
Reteplase (Retavase), 253 Infarction (MI), 316
Tenecteplase (TNKase), 255 Management of Unstable Angina/Non–ST-Segment
Tirofiban HCl (Aggrastat), 258 Elevation Myocardial Infarction (MI), 319
Vasopressin (Pitressin), 262 Management of Patient with a Suspected Acute Coronary
Syndrome and Nondiagnostic or Normal ECG, 321
Management of Acute Pulmonary Edema, 322
SECTION III: ACLS Guidelines for Adult Emergency Management of Hypotension/Shock: Suspected Pump
Cardiac Care Algorithms, 267 Problem, 326
Pulseless Ventricular Tachycardia (VT)/Ventricular Management of Hypotension/Shock: Suspected
Fibrillation (VF), 268 Volume Problem, 330
Asystole, 271 Management of Hypotension/Shock: Suspected Rate
Pulseless Electrical Activity (PEA), 274 Problem, 332
Sources
ources

Aehlert B: ACLS quick review study guide, ed 3, Hazinski MF, Field JM, Gilmore D, editors: Handbook
St Louis, 2007, Mosby. of emergency cardiovascular care 2008: For
American Heart Association: Advanced cardiac life healthcare providers, Dallas, 2008, American Heart
support provider manual, 2006, American Heart Association.
Association Inc. Lacy CF, Armstrong LL, Goldman MP, Lance LL:
American Heart Association in Collaboration with the 2007–2008 Drug information handbook, ed 15,
International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation Cleveland, 2007, Lexi-Comp Inc and American
(ILCOR). Part 6: Advanced cardiovascular life support; Pharmaceutical Association.
Section 7: Algorithm approach to ACLS emergencies, Lester RM, Dente-Cassidy AM: Intravenous
Circulation 102(suppl I):136-171, 2000. medications for critical care, ed 2, Philadelphia, 1996,
American Society of Health System Pharmacists: Saunders.
American hospital formulary service, Bethesda, Md, Medical Economics Staff: Physician’s desk reference
2008, The Society. 2008, ed 62, Oradell, NJ, 2008, Medical Economics
Gahart BL, Nazareno AR: 2009 intravenous Company.
medications, ed 25, St Louis, 2009, Mosby. Trissel LA: Handbook of injectable drugs, ed 15,
Goldberg, PA, Clinical results of an updated insulin Bethesda, Md, 2009, American Society of Health
infusion protocol in critically ill patients, Diabetes System Pharmacists.
Spectrum 18:188-191, 2005.
Abbreviations
bbreviations

ACS acute coronary syndrome CSU cardiac surgery unit

ACT activated clotting time CVA cerebrovascular accident, cardiovascular
ADRs adverse drug reactions accident
AED automatic external defibrillator CVP central venous pressure
AMI acute myocardial infarction D5W dextrose 5%
aPTT activated partial thromboplastin time DBP diastolic blood pressure
AV atrioventricular DIC disseminated intravascular coagulation
AVNRT atrioventricular nodal reentry tachycardia DNAR Do Not Attempt Resuscitation
AVRT atrioventricular reciprocating tachycardia ET endotracheal tube
BLS basic life support GGT g-glutamyltransferase
BP blood pressure GI gastrointestinal
CABG coronary artery bypass grafting HIT heparin-induced thrombocytopenia
CAD coronary artery disease HR heart rate
CBC complete blood count ICU intensive care unit
CCU cardiac care unit IgG immunoglobulin G
CF calculation factor IHSS idiopathic hypertropic subaortic stenosis
CHF congestive heart failure IM intramuscular
CLL chronic lymphocytic leukemia INR international normalized ratio
CNS central nervous system IO intraosseous
COPD chronic obstructive pulmonary disease ITP idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura
CPR cardiopulmonary resuscitation IV intravenous
CrCl creatinine clearance IVP intravenous pyelogram
LBBB left bundle branch block PVC polyvinyl chloride
LMWH low molecular weight heparin RR respiratory rate
MAO monamine oxidase rTPA recombinant tissue plasminogen activator
MAP mean arterial pressure SA sinoatrial
MAT multifocal atrial tachycardia SaO2 saturation level of oxygen in hemoglobin
NG nasogastric SBP systolic blood pressure
NPO nothing by mouth SC subcutaneous
OBS organic brain syndrome SGOT serum glutamic-oxaloacetic transaminase
PCI percutaneous coronary intervention SGPT serum glutamic-pyruvic transaminase
PCWP pulmonary capillary wedge pressure TEE transesophageal echocardiography
PE pulmonary embolism TNF-a human tumor necrosis factor alpha
PEA pulseless electrical activity TPA tissue plasminogen activator
PO by mouth TPN total parenteral nutrition
PRN as needed USP United States Pharmacopeia
PSVT paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia VF ventricular fibrillation
PT prothrombin time VT ventricular tachycardia
PTCA percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty WPW Wolff-Parkinson-White
PTT partial thromboplastin time

xiii
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Drug Calculation Formulae
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Drug Calculation Formulae
1. Calculate concentration of any drug in a bag (or bottle).
Amount of drug in bag ðmgÞ
¼ Concentration in mg=mL
Total volume of the bag ðmLÞ
Example:
Nitroglycerin 25 mg
¼ 0:1 mg=mL ¼ 100 mcg=mL
D5W 250 mL

2. Calculate dose administered for a given infusion rate.

Concentration in bag ðmg=mLÞ  infusion rate
¼ Dose per minute
60 min
Example: Procainamide 4 mg/mL is infusing at 30 mL/hr. What dose is infusing (mg/min)?
Procainamide 4 mg=mL  30 mL=hr
¼ 2 mg=min
60 mg

3. Calculate infusion rate for a given dose in mcg/kg/min.

Body weight ðkgÞ  Dose ðmcg=kg=minÞ
¼ Infusion rate in mL=min  60 min=hr ¼ Rate ðmL=hrÞ
Drug concentration ðmcg=mLÞ
 Example: Dobutamine 5 mcg/kg/min for a 60-kg patient.
60 kg  5 mcg=kg=min
¼ 0:15 mL=min  60 min=hr ¼ 9 mL=hr
2000 mcg=mL bag
4. Calculation factors (CF).
Dose ðmcg=kg=minÞ
¼ CF
Infusion rate ðmL=hrÞ
Example: Dobutamine at 5 mcg/kg/min in a 60-kg patient is infusing at 9 mL/hr.
5 mcg=kg=min
¼ 0:556 CF
9 mL=hr

Calculation factors can be used to quickly convert a particular dose of a drug or infusion to a specific infusion rate
in mL/hr or vice versa. This can be helpful when titrating various drugs to effect, and frequent changes in infusion
rate may need to be converted to the actual dose of drug administered. For example, if we needed to change the
infusion rate from 9 mL/hr of dobutamine to 15 mL/hr to maintain blood pressure, how many mcg/kg/min would
be infusing? Multiply the CF by the new rate to get the new dose, or 0.556  15 = 8.34 mcg/kg/min.

Drug Calculation Formulae xvii

Drug Calculation Formulae—cont’d
COMMON METRIC CONVERSIONS
1000 micrograms (mcg) = 1 milligram (mg)
1000 milligrams (mg) = 1 gram (g)
1000 grams (g) = 1 kilogram (kg)
1 milliliter (mL) = 1 cubic centimeter (cc)
1000 milliliters (mL) = 1 liter (L)
SECTION I

Critical Care Intravenous Infusion Drugs—

Quick Mixing Guide
Critical Care Intravenous Infusion Drugs—Quick Mixing Guide
ABCIXIMAB (REOPRO) ARGATROBAN (ACOVA) 250 MG IN
Bolus dose: Given IV push 250 ML NS
Maintenance dose: Add required maintenance dose Add 250 mg (2.5 mL) argatroban to 250 mL NS
to 250 mL D5W Final concentration: 250 mg/250 mL (1 mg/mL)

ALTEPLASE (ACTIVASE) ATRACURIUM (TRACRIUM) 250 MG

Add 100 mg alteplase to 100 mL sterile water or (25 ML) IN 250 ML D5W
50 mg alteplase to 50 mL sterile water Add 250 mg (25 mL) atracurium to 225 mL D5W
Final concentration: 1 mg/mL Final concentration: 1 mg/mL

AMINOPHYLLINE (THEOPHYLLINE) BIVALIRUDIN (ANGIOMAX) 250 MG

500 MG IN 500 ML D5W (5 ML) IN 50 ML D5W
Premade solution: Theophylline 400 mg/500 mL or Add 250 mg (5 mL) bivalirudin to 50 mL D5W
800 mg/1000 mL Final concentration: 5 mg/mL
Final concentration: 1 mg/mL of aminophylline
CISATRACURIUM (NIMBEX) 250 MG
AMIODARONE (CORDARONE) IN 250 ML D5W
Bolus dose: Add 150 mg to 100 mL D5W Add 250 mg (25  5-mL vials) cisatracurium to 125 mL
Maintenance dose: Add 900 mg to 500 mL D5W in D5W
glass bottle Final concentration: 1 mg/mL
Final concentration: 1.8 mg/mL
CONIVAPTAN (VAPRISOL) DOPAMINE (INTROPIN) 400 MG
20 mg IV loading dose; 20-40 mg/day IV continuous IN 250 ML D5W
infusion; maximum duration is 4 days Premade solution
Final concentration: 200 mg in 100 mL D5W Final concentration: 400 mg/250 mL (1600 mcg/mL)
(0.2 mg/mL) and 40 mg in 250 mL D5W (0.16 mg/mL)
DROTRECOGIN ALFA (XIGRIS) (2 3 5 MG)
DEXMEDETOMIDINE (PRECEDEX) 2 MG 10 MG IN 100 ML NS
IN 50 ML NS Add 10 mg (2  5 mg vials) to 100 mL NS
Add 2 mL Precedex to 48-mL NS minibag Final concentration: 10,000 mcg/100 mL (100 mcg/
Final concentration: 4 mcg/mL mL)

DILTIAZEM (CARDIZEM) 125 MG EPINEPHRINE (ADRENALIN) 1 MG

IN 100 ML D5W IN 250 ML D5W OR NS
Add 125 mg (5  25-mg vials) diltiazem to 100 mL Add 1 mg (1 ampule) epinephrine to 250 mL D5W or NS
D5W or NS Final concentration: 1 mg/250 mL (4 mcg/mL)
Final concentration: 125 mg/125 mL (1 mg/mL)
EPTIFIBATIDE (INTEGRILIN) 75 MG
DOBUTAMINE (DOBUTREX) 500 MG IN 100-ML VIAL
IN 250 ML D5W Premade solution
Premade solution Bolus dose: from 10-mL vial
Final concentration: 500 mg/250 mL (2 mg/mL) Maintenance dose: from 75-mg/100-mL vial

Critical Care Intravenous Infusion Drugs—Quick Mixing Guide 3

Critical Care Intravenous Infusion Drugs—Quick Mixing Guide
ESMOLOL (BREVIBLOC) 2.5 G IN 250 ML IBUTILIDE (CORVERT) 1 MG IN 50 ML
D5W OR NS D5W OR NS
Add 2.5 g (10 mL of 250-mg/mL vial) esmolol to 250 mL Add 1 mg (10-mL vial) ibutilide to 50 mL D5W or NS
D5W or NS May also be given IV push over 10 minutes
Final concentration: 10 mg/mL
IMMUNE GLOBULIN DOSES
FENOLDOPAM (CORLOPAM) 10 MG See dosing chart
IN 250 ML D5W OR NS
Add 10 mg (1 mL) fenoldopam to 250 mL D5W or NS INAMRINONE (INOCOR) 500 MG
Final concentration: 40 mcg/mL IN 100 ML NS
Add 500 mg (5  100-mg ampules) inamrinone to
HALOPERIDOL (HALDOL) FOR RAPID 100 mL NS
TRANQUILIZATION Final concentration: 500 mg/200 mL (2.5 mg/mL)
Available as 5-mg/mL vial for IV push
INFLIXIMAB (REMICADE) 100 MG
HEPARIN 25,000 UNITS IN 500 ML D5W TO 900 MG IN 250 ML NS
Premade solution Add 100 mg to 600 mg (calculate correct dose by
Final concentration: 25,000 units/500 mL (50 units/ weight in dosing charts) to total volume of 250 mL
mL) NS
Final concentration: 0.4 to 4 mg/mL
INSULIN 100 UNITS IN 250 ML NS LIDOCAINE 2 G IN 500 ML D5W
Add 100 units (1 mL) insulin to 250 mL NS Premade solution
Final concentration: 100 units/250 mL (2 units/5 mL) Final concentration: 2 g/500 mL (4 mg/mL)
For intensive insulin protocols add 100 (1 mL) to
100 mL NS LORAZEPAM (ATIVAN) 40 MG IN 500 ML
Final concentration: 100 units/100 mL (1 unit/mL) D5W
Add 40 mg (10 mL) lorazepam to 500 mL D5W in
ISOPROTERENOL (ISUPREL) 1 MG glass bottle
IN 250 ML D5W Final concentration: 0.08 mg/mL
Add 1 mg (1 ampule) isoproterenol to 250 mL D5W
Final concentration: 1 mg/250 mL (4 mcg/mL) MAGNESIUM SULFATE (MGSO4)
Add 1 g magnesium sulfate to 50 mL NS or 2 g to
LABETALOL (TRANDATE) 200 MG 100 mL NS
IN 200 ML NS Premixed doses 4% solution, 4 g/100 mL or 40 g/
Add 200 mg (40 mL) labetalol to 160 mL NS 1000 mL (for eclampsia)
Final concentration: 200 mg/200 mL (1 mg/mL) 1-2 g (2-4 mL of 50% solution) diluted in 10 mL D5W
may be given IV push for cardiac arrest
LEPIRUDIN (REFLUDAN) 100 MG Final concentration: 1 g/50 mL (20 mg/mL)
IN 250 ML NS
Add 100 mg (2 mL) lepirudin to 250 mL NS
Final concentration: 0.4 mg/mL

Critical Care Intravenous Infusion Drugs—Quick Mixing Guide 5

Critical Care Intravenous Infusion Drugs—Quick Mixing Guide
MIDAZOLAM (VERSED) 125 MG A premixed 200 mL solution is also available contain-
IN 125 ML NS ing 20 mg in NS or D5W
Add 125 mg (25 mL of 5 mg/mL vials) midazolam to Final concentration: 0.1 mg/mL
100 mL NS
Final concentration: 1.0 mg/mL NITROGLYCERIN 25 MG IN 250 ML D5W
Premade solution
MILRINONE (PRIMACOR) 20 MG Final concentration: 25 mg/250 mL (100 mcg/mL)
IN 100 ML D5W
Premade solution NITROPRUSSIDE (NIPRIDE) 50 MG
Final concentration: 0.2 mg/mL IN 500 ML D5W
Add 50 mg (1 vial) nitroprusside to 500 mL D5W
NESIRITIDE (NATRECOR) 1.5 MG Final concentration: 50 mg/500 mL (100 mcg/mL)
IN 250 ML D5W
Add 1.5 mg (5 mL) nesiritide to 250 mL D5W NOREPINEPHRINE (LEVOPHED) 4 MG
Final concentration: 1.5 mg/250 mL (6 mcg/mL) IN 250 ML D5W OR NS WITH REGITINE
5 MG/250 ML
NICARDIPINE (CARDENE) Add 4 mg (1  4-mg ampule) norepinephrine to
Add 1 ampule (25 mg/10 mL) to 240 mL of Dextrose 250 mL D5W or NS and add 5 mg Regitine
5% or NS resulting in 250 mL of solution (1  5–mg vial) to each 250-mL bag
Final concentration: 0.1 mg/mL Final concentration: norepinephrine 4 mg/250 mL
(16 mcg/mL)
OCTREOTIDE (SANDOSTATIN) 3.1-3.4 mmol/L give 20 mEq every 2 hr  2 doses
1200 MCG IN 250 ML D5W OR NS 2.5-3 mmol/L give 20 mEq every 2 hr  3 doses
Add 1200 mcg (2.4 mL) Sandostatin to 250 mL D5W Less than 2.5 mmol/L give 20 mEq every 2 hr  4
or NS doses
Final concentration: Sandostatin 4.8 mcg/mL
1. Max: 200 mEq/day and rarely up to 400 mEq/
PANTOPRAZOLE (PROTONIX) 40–80 MG day with extreme caution.
IN 100 ML D5W OR NS 2. Max infusion rate: 10 mEq/hr; in severe hypo-
Add 10 mL NS to each 40-mg vial and add contents to kalemia (K < 2.0), 20-40 mEq/hr with
90 mL NS extreme caution and infusion pump
Final concentration: 40 mg/100 mL (0.4 mg/mL) or Final concentration: 10 mEq/100 mL (central line) or
80 mg/100 mL (0.8 mg/mL) 40 mEq/500 mL (peripheral)
PHENYLEPHRINE (NEO-SYNEPHRINE) PROCAINAMIDE (PRONESTYL) 1 G
10 MG IN 250 ML D5W IN 250 ML D5W OR NS
Add 10 mg (1 ampule) phenylephrine to 250 mL D5W Add 1 g (1 vial) Pronestyl to 250 mL D5W or NS
Final concentration: 10 mg/250 mL (40 mcg/mL) Final concentration: 1 g/250 mL (4 mg/mL)
POTASSIUM CHLORIDE (KCl) PROPOFOL (DIPRIVAN) 500 MG/50 ML
Based on serum potassium levels: 20-60 mEq/day is OR 1 G/100 ML EMULSION
usual Premade solution
Typical doses based on serum levels: Final concentration: 10 mg/mL

Critical Care Intravenous Infusion Drugs—Quick Mixing Guide 7

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Bridge. In order to escape and to carry away their property, every
available vehicle, cart, waggon, carriage, or boat, was in requisition.
Forty pounds was offered and given by many householders for the
safe removal of their property, while in some cases—those of the
wealthy—£400 was paid simply to get the plate and jewels and other
valuables carried out of the reach of the Fire. The things were taken
out into the open fields, where they were laid on the grass, and so
left in charge of the owners; open and unconcealed robberies took
place, as was to be expected. Some of the people placed their things
for safety in the churches, fondly thinking that the fire would spare
them; the booksellers of Little Britain and Paternoster Row deposited
the whole of their books in the crypt of St. Paul’s; alas! they lost
them all. Those who had friends in the villages near London carried
away their money and their valuables and deposited them in the
houses of these friends. Pepys buried his treasure in the garden of
Sir W. Ryder at Bethnal Green. He afterwards describes how he dug
it up again and how he lost some of the money by the decay of the
bags.

THE GREAT FIRE OF LONDON

From a contemporary print. E. Gardner’s Collection.
 A strong easterly wind carried the flames along from roof to roof,
and from house to house, and from street to street. The fire raged
almost unchecked. By Monday morning it had covered the area
between Pudding Lane and Gracechurch Street and Lombard Street,
and to St. Swithin’s in Candlewick Street, along the river as far as
the Three Cranes in the Vintry. By Tuesday night it had destroyed
everything as far west as St. Dunstan’s in Fleet Street. By this time
the men arrived from the dockyards, and by blowing up houses the
fire was stopped at a great many points at once; the Duke of York
superintended the work, and gained all hearts by his powerful
labours in handing the buckets and giving orders. On Wednesday the
fire broke out again in the Temple, but was reduced without
difficulty. The damage done by this terrible calamity was computed,
to put it into figures, as follows:—of houses destroyed, 13,200; their
value, £3,900,000; of streets, 400; of parish churches, 87; their
value, £261,600; of consecrated chapels, 6; their value, £12,000; of
wares, goods, etc., £3,800,000; of public edifices burned, £939,000;
St. Paul’s rebuilt at a cost of £2,000,000. The whole loss, with other
and smaller items, was reckoned at £10,730,500. The public
buildings destroyed included St. Paul’s Cathedral, eighty-seven parish
churches, six consecrated chapels, the Royal Exchange, the Custom
House, Sion College, the Grey Friars Church, St. Thomas of Acon,
the Justice House, the four prisons, fifty companies’ halls, and four
gates. By this time many of the former nobles’ town houses and the
great merchants’ palaces had been taken down and turned into
private houses, warehouses, and shops; as, for instance, the Erber,
Cold Harbour, la Riole, the King’s Wardrobe, and others. The
mediæval buildings with the exception of the churches had all gone,
but there was still left a great quantity of remains, walls, vaults,
arches, and other parts of ancient buildings, the loss of which to the
antiquary and the historian was irreparable.
This appalling calamity is without parallel in history except,
perhaps, the earthquake of Lisbon. Once before there had been a
fire which swept London from east to west, but London was then
poor; there were few merchants, and the warehouses were small
and only half-filled. In 1665 the warehouses were vast and filled with
valuable merchandise. There still stands south of Thames Street a
warehouse[9] built immediately after the Fire, evidently in imitation
of its predecessors. It consists of seven or eight stories, all low;
there are still small gables, a reminiscence of the old gables; looking
upon this warehouse and remembering that there was a long row of
these facing the river with lanes and river stairs between, we can
understand the loss to the merchants caused by the conflagration.
Considering also the rows of shops along Cheapside, Eastcheap,
Ludgate Hill, and Cornhill, we can understand the ruin that fell upon
the retail dealers in that awful week. All they had in the world was
gone save the right of rebuilding on the former site. The master
craftsmen lost their tools and their workshops; the bookseller lost his
books; the journeyman lost his employment as well as his sticks. I
quote here certain words of my own in another book:—
“The fire is out at last; the rain has quenched the last sparks; the
embers have ceased to smoke; those walls which have not fallen
totter and hang trembling, ready to fall. I see men standing about
singly; the tears run down their cheeks; two hundred years ago, if
we had anything to cry about, we were not ashamed to cry without
restraint; they are dressed in broad-cloth, the ruffles are of lace,
they look like reputable citizens. Listen—one draws near another.
‘Neighbour,’ he says, ‘a fortnight ago, before this stroke, whether of
God or of Papist, I had a fair shop on this spot.’ ‘And I also, good
friend,’ said the other, ‘as you know.’ ‘My shop,’ continued the first,
‘was stocked with silks and satins, kid gloves, lace ruffles and
neckties, shirts, and all that a gentleman or gentlewoman can ask
for. The stock was worth a thousand pounds. I turned it over six or
seven times a year at least. And my profit was four hundred pounds.’
‘As for me,’ said the other, ‘I was in a smaller way, as you know. Yet
such as it was, my fortune was all in it, and out of my takings, I
could call two hundred pounds a year my own.’ ‘Now is it all gone,’
said the first. ‘All gone,’ the other repeated, fetching a sigh. ‘And
now, neighbour, unless the Company help, I see nothing for it but
we must starve.’ ‘Must starve,’ the other repeated. And so they
separated, and went divers ways, and whether they starved or
whether they received help, and rose from the ashes with new
house and newly stocked shop, I know not.”

The Cathedral Church of S t Paul as it was before y e fire of London

From a contemporary print.

It is generally believed that the Fire left nothing standing where it

had passed. This was not the case. Many of the church towers were
left in part. Only the other day in building offices in the City on the
site of a church—St. Olave’s, Old Jewry—it was discovered that the
lower part of the tower with the stone turret outside belonged to the
old church. Many crypts escaped; the walls where they were of brick
remained standing in part; in one case a whole court survived the
Fire. This case is very curious. On the north-east of Apothecaries’
Hall, with an entrance from Castle Street, was, until a year or two
ago, a court called Fleur de Lys Court. At the time of the Fire there
stood close beside the court, on the east side, the church and
churchyard of St. Anne’s, built after the Dissolution upon part of the
old Blackfriars. Remember that the wind was easterly and strong
during the Fire. When the roof of St. Anne’s caught fire, therefore,
the flames were driven across this court and over it. It would appear
that the roof had been injured and part of the upper stories, but not
the lower part. The court looked strangely out of keeping with the
other buildings. I took my friend Mr. Loftie to see it. He gave it as his
opinion at once that the mullions of the windows were of earlier date
than the Fire. I afterwards took Mr. J. J. Stevenson, the architect,
who made one or two sketches and came to the same conclusion. A
few weeks later I found that they were pulling the court down.
The causes of the Fire and the conditions which made its
existence possible are thus enumerated by Strype:—

“First, They consider the time of the night when it first began,
viz. between one and two of the clock after midnight, when all
were in a dead sleep.
Secondly, it was Saturday night when many of the most
eminent citizens, merchants, and others were retired into the
country and none but servants left to look to their City Houses.
Thirdly, it was in the long vacation, being that particular time
of the year when many wealthy citizens and tradesmen are
wont to be in the country at Fairs, and getting in of Debts, and
making up accounts with their Chapmen.
Fourthly, the closeness of the Building, and narrowness of the
street in the places where it began, did much facilitate the
progress of the Fire by hindering of the Engines to be brought
to play upon the Houses on Fire.
Fifthly, the matter of which the Houses, all thereabouts were,
viz. Timber, and those very old.
Sixthly, the dryness of the preceding season: there having
been a great drought even to that very day and all the time that
the fire continued, which has so dried the Timber, that it was
never more pat to take Fire.
 Seventhly, the Nature of the Wares and Commodities, stowed
and vended in those Parts, were the most combustible of any
other sold in the whole City: as Oil, Pitch, Tar, Cordage, Hemp,
Flax, Rosin, Wax, Butter, Cheese, Wine, Brandy, sugar, etc.
Eighthly, an easterly wind, which is the driest of all others,
had blown for several days together before, and at that time
very strongly.
Ninthly, the unexpected failing of the water thereabouts at
that time: for the engine at the North end of London Bridge,
called the Thames Water Tower, was out of Order, and in a few
hours was itself burnt down, so that the water pipes which
conveyed the water from thence through the streets were soon
empty.
Lastly, an unusual negligence at first, and a confidence of
easily quenching it, and of its stopping at several probable
places afterwards, turning at length into a confusion,
consternation, and despair: people choosing rather by flight to
save their goods, than by a vigorous opposition to save their
own houses and the whole City.”

This dry reasoning would not satisfy the people. They began to
whisper among each other that this was the work of an incendiary
and a stranger; a Dutchman, or, more likely, a Roman Catholic.
Divers strangers, Dutch and French, were arrested on suspicion of
firing the City, but as there was no evidence they were released.
What gave some colour to the suspicion was that, in April of that
year, certain old officers and soldiers in Cromwell’s army, eight in
number, were tried for conspiracy and treason, their design having
been to surprise the Tower, to kill the Lieutenant, and then to have
declared for an equal division of lands. After taking the Tower their
purpose was to set fire to the City. They were all found guilty,
condemned, and executed. After the fire there was brought to the
Lord Chief Justice a boy of ten, who declared that his father and
uncle, Dutchmen both, were the persons who set fire to the house in
Pudding Lane with fire-balls. This little villain appears to have been
sent off as an impostor.

A View of the Monument of London, in remembrance of the dreadful Fire

in 1666. Its height is 202 Feet.

Then, however, followed Robert Hubert’s confession, which was

far more important. The man Hubert confessed or declared that
about four months before the Fire he left his native town of Rouen
with one Piedloe, and went with him to Sweden, where he stayed
four months; that they came together in a Swedish ship to London,
staying on board till the night when the fire began; that Piedloe then
took him to Pudding Lane and gave him a fire-ball, which he lighted
and put through a window by means of a long pole, waiting till the
house was well alight. One Graves, a French merchant, resident in
London, said that he knew both Hubert and Piedloe; that the former
was a mischievous person, capable of any wickedness, while the
latter was a debauched fellow, also apt to any wickedness. Next, in
order to try the man’s story, they took him to Pudding Lane and
bade him point out Farryner’s house—or the site of it. This he did
very readily. Then they questioned Farryner, who declared that no
fire could possibly have broken out in his house by accident. On the
other hand, the Swedish captain swore that Hubert did not land until
after the Fire, and his confession was full of contradictions; also he
declared himself a Protestant, yet died a Catholic; in the opinion of
many he was a man of disordered mind; moreover, why should
Piedloe take him as companion when he might just as well have
done the job himself? And how should a complete stranger taken
into the dark streets of London for the first time in the dead of night
be able to recognise again the street or the house?
In any case Hubert was hanged; and as he died a Catholic, it was
of course abundantly clear that the whole thing was a Catholic
conspiracy, a fact which was accordingly inscribed on the new
monument when it was erected, so that
“London’s column pointing to the skies,
Like a tall bully lifts its head and lies.”

The inscription was removed on the accession of James the Second,

but put up again on the arrival of William the Third. It remained on
the monument till the year 1830, when it was taken down by order
of the Common Council.
It is generally stated that the houseless people took refuge in
Moorfields. This is only partly true. There were 13,200 houses
destroyed and 200,000 people turned out into the streets. One
remarks that if these figures are correct the crowding in the City
must have been very great. For these figures give fifteen persons to
every house, great and small, one with another. They did not all lie
out on Moorfields simply because there was no room for them.
Upper and lower Moorfields covered an area of about 840,000
square feet, or a square of 900 feet, very nearly. If we allow 15 feet
× 20 feet for each hut to accommodate five people, we can find
room for 2800 such houses without counting the lanes between
them; so that Moorfields would contain about 14,000 people only.
Evelyn says that the people were dispersed about St. George’s
Fields, Moorfields, and as far as Highgate. “I then went towards
Islington and Highgate, where one might have seen 200,000 people
of all ranks and degrees dispersed and lying along by their heaps of
what they could save from the Fire.”
“Pitiful huts,” Maitland says, “were erected for their
accommodation, and for their immediate needs the King sent a great
quantity of bread from the Navy Stores to be distributed, and
neighbouring Justices of the Peace were enjoined to send in all
manner of victuals.
It was reputed that the loss of life was only six, but I venture to
think that this loss must be greatly understated. When one considers
the rapid spread of the fire, the way in which the people lingered to
the last to save a little more, and when one remembers how Evelyn
noticed on his first visit to the ruins the “stench from some poor
creatures’ bodies,” we cannot but feel persuaded that the losses
were more than six.
On Moorfields temporary chapels also were built. But when the
fire ceased, and before the embers were cooled, the people began
to creep back and the rebuilding of the City began. As there was still
remaining that part of the City east of Billingsgate with the river and
the shipping, business went on, though with broken wings. For the
Royal Exchange they used Gresham College; the same place became
their Guildhall; the Excise Office was removed to Southampton
Street, near Bedford House; the General Post Office was taken to
Brydges Street, Covent Garden; the Custom House to Mark Lane;
Doctors’ Commons to Exeter House, Strand. For temporary churches
the authorities appropriated the meeting-houses which had not been
destroyed. They began to rebuild their City. Within four years, ten
thousand houses, twenty churches, and a great many companies’
halls had been put up again. It took thirty years to complete the
building of the fifty-one churches which were put up in place of the
eighty-seven destroyed.
 One effect of the Fire was to drive out of the City many of the
shopkeepers. Thus Maitland says that before the Fire, Paternoster
Row was chiefly occupied by mercers, silkmen, lacemen; “and these
shops were so much resorted unto by the nobility and gentry in their
carriages that ofttimes the street was so stopped up, that there was
no room for foot-passengers.” After the Fire, however, the tradesmen
settled themselves in other parts; one supposes that they opened
temporary shops, and, finding them convenient, they stayed where
they were. They went to Henrietta Street, Bedford Street, and King
Street, Covent Garden. Ludgate Hill, however, remained for a long
time the principal street for the best shops of mercers and lacemen.
Were so great and overwhelming a calamity to befall a City in our
times, we should have abundant materials for estimating not only
the total value of the destruction, but also its effect upon individuals.
We learn next to nothing of the Fire as it affected classes, such as
merchants, shopkeepers, or craftsmen. The Plague ruined its
thousands by slaying the breadwinner; the Fire ruined its tens of
thousands by destroying everything that the breadwinner possessed,
warehouse, goods, and all. Credit remained, one supposes; by the
aid of credit many recovered. Yet, one asks, what amount of credit
could possibly replace the trader’s stock? What amount of credit
could once more fill the great warehouse crammed to the very roof
with commodities? Those who were debtors found their debts wiped
off; one supposes that all prisoners for debt were enlarged; those
who were creditors could not collect their amounts; rents could
neither be asked nor paid; the money-lender and the borrower were
destroyed together; almshouses were burnt down—what became of
the poor old men and women? The City charities were suspended—
what became of the poor? In such a universal dislocation, revolution,
and cessation of everything, the poor man lost all that he had to
lose, and the rich were sent empty away. Would that some limner of
the time had portrayed for us a faithful picture of the first meeting of
the Common Council after the Fire! Dryden speaks of the Fire:—
 “Those who have homes, when home they do repair
To a last lodging call their wandering friends:
Their short uneasy sleeps are broke with care
To look how near their own destruction ends.
Those who have none sit round where it was,
And with full eyes each wonted stone require:
Haunting the yet warm ashes of the place,
As murdered men walk where they did expire.
The most in fields like herded beasts lie down
To dews obnoxious on the grassy floor,
And while their babes in sleep their sorrow drown,
Sad parents watch the remnant of their store.”

One thing is certain: for the working man there was no lack of
employment; thousands were wanted to clear away the rubbish, to
get the streets in order, to take down shaky walls, to make bricks, to
dig out foundations, to do carpenter’s work and all those things
required for the creation of a new London. And as for the artificers,
they were wanted to restore the stocks of the traders as quickly as
might be. Labour was never in such request before in all the history
of London.
 A PLAN of the CITY and LIBERTIES of LONDON after the Dreadful
Conflagration in the Year 1666. The Blank Part whereof represents the
Ruins and Extent of the Fire, & the Perspective that left standing.
From a contemporary print.

Twenty-five years later they were congratulating themselves on

the changed and improved condition of the City. The writer of Anglia
Metropolis, or the Present State of London,[10] says:—

“As if the Fire had only purged the City, the buildings are
infinitely more beautiful, more commodious, more solid (the
three main virtues of all edifices) than before. They have made
their streets much more large and straight, paved on each side
with smooth free stone, and guarded the same with many
massy posts for the benefit of foot passengers: and whereas
before they dwelt in low dark wooden houses, they now live in
lofty, lightsome, uniform, and very stately brick buildings.”
 Of the wooden houses commonly found in London before the Fire
you will find one or two specimens still left—fifty years ago there
were many. One such is in the Churchyard of St. Giles, Cripplegate.
As to the total destruction of the houses I am in some doubt; I have
already mentioned one court called the Fleur de Lys, Blackfriars,
which escaped the Fire. The same fact that probably saved this
Court may have saved other places. Strype, for instance, mentions a
house in Aldersgate Street which survived the Fire. There were,
again, many houses partially destroyed, some accident arresting the
Fire, and there were many walls which could be used again. These
considerations are confirmed by an examination of Hollar’s minute
picture of London immediately after the Fire. In this picture all the
churches are presented as standing with their towers; they are
roofless and their windows are destroyed, but they are standing. It
would be interesting to learn how much of these old walls and
towers were used in the new buildings. Half the houses on London
Bridge are gone, and the Bridge is evidently cleared of rubbish. Part
of the front of Fishmongers’ Hall is still standing; All Hallows the
Less, which appears to have been quite a small church, has no
tower, but its walls are standing. Between that church and the river
is a space covered with ruins, in the midst of which stands a pillar.
The Water Gate remains at Cold Harbour; part of the front and the
quay of the Steelyard, and a small part of the roof at the east end of
St. Paul’s still remain, melancholy to look upon; the square port of
Queenhithe is surrounded by fallen houses; the steeple of the Royal
Exchange stands over the ruins; the river front of Baynard’s Castle
still stands, but the eastern side is in ruins; the place is evidently
gutted. In all directions there are walls, gables, whole houses
standing among heaps and mounds of rubbish.
Two circumstances must be reckoned fortunate: the Fire, while it
burned down the churches and reduced the monuments to dust,
also penetrated below the surface and transformed the dreadful
mass of putrefaction caused by the Plague a year before into
harmless dust. It also choked most of the numerous wells, whose
bright and sparkling waters charged with malarious filtrations the
people had been accustomed to regard as sweet and healthy.
The King issued a Proclamation on the rebuilding of the City. No
houses of wood were to be put up; cellars, if possible, were to be
strongly arched; the principal streets were to be made broader and
no narrow lanes to remain; the river was to have a fair quay or
wharf running all along, with no houses except at a certain distance;
trades carried on by means of fire and causing smoke to be placed
in certain quarters where they would be neither dangerous nor
noisome; a survey of the whole area covered by the Fire was to be
made. There were also Acts passed by the Court of Common Council
for the enlargement and the pitching and levelling of the streets.
These Acts will be found in Appendix V.

SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN (1632–1723)

From the painting by Sir Godfrey Kneller in the National Portrait Gallery,
London.
 Three plans were sent in to the Common Council for the laying out
of the City in a more convenient manner; they were drawn up by
Christopher Wren, who was appointed architect and surveyor-
general, Sir John Evelyn, and Dr. Newcourt. The scheme of Wren
was considered very carefully. It proved impossible, however, on
account of the unwillingness of the people to give up their right of
building on their old foundations. The scheme of Evelyn provided an
embankment along the river, broad streets, piazzas round the
churches, in which were to be shops; a Mansion House; a footway
on London Bridge instead of houses; the churchyard of the whole
City was to be a strip of ground under the old wall; opposite to the
churchyard was to be a street set apart for inns and stations for
carriers. It was, in short, a scheme quite impossible, yet remarkable
for anticipating so much of what has since been carried out.
Sir John Evelyn’s Plan for Rebuilding the City of London after the Great
Fire in 1666.

S r. Christopher Wren’s Plan for Rebuilding the City of London after the
dreadfull Conflagration in 1666.
From contemporary prints.
 Meantime the rebuilding went on rapidly; in a few cases a street
was widened; but the narrow lanes running north and south of
Thames Street show that little regard was paid to the regulations.
No wooden houses were built, and the old plan of high gables and
projecting windows was exchanged for a flat façade and square
coping. The churches were rebuilt, for the most part slowly. Some
were not rebuilt at all. The last was finished thirty years after the
Fire. Of the general character of Wren’s churches this is not the
place for an estimate. It is sufficient here to explain that Wren was
guided first by the sum of money at his disposal, and next by the
extent of ground; that many of the old churches were quite small
buildings standing in small churchyards; but he extended the
foundations and increased the area of the church; that he built in
every case a preaching-house and not a mass-house, so that nearly
all the churches are oblong halls instead of cruciform buildings; that
he studied the interior instead of the exterior, and that some of his
finest churches inside present no feature of interest on the outside.
The builders, all over the City, used as much as possible of the old
foundations. Thus the Heralds’ College preserves the court of Derby
House; Wardrobe Square is the inner court of the King’s Wardrobe
Palace; while the narrow streets on either side of Cheapside
preserve exactly the old lines of the streets burned down. It would
be interesting to ascertain, if possible, where Wren’s churches were
built upon the older foundations; the north wall of the Holy Trinity
Minories, for instance, belongs to the ancient convent there; the
vestry of Allhallows in the Wall is on a bastion of the wall.
They altered the levels of many streets. Thames Street, “to
prevent inundations,” which shows that, in parts at least, it was
lower than the old embankment, was raised three feet, and the
streets leading out of it raised in a proper proportion; many streets
were ordered to be widened, but it does not appear that the order
was in every case carried into effect; several new streets were
constructed; a duty on coals, one shilling at first, and afterwards two
shillings on every ton, was granted to the City for the express
expenses of the rebuilding; a Court of Judicature was established for
the purpose of deciding quickly all disputes as to rents, boundaries,
debts, etc., that might arise; the Court sat in the Hall of Clifford’s
Inn; rules were laid down concerning the materials, thickness of
party walls, etc., rules so minute that it is perfectly certain that they
could not be carried out; they divided the City into four quarters;
they ordered each quarter to provide 800 buckets with brass hand
squirts and ladders of various lengths; they appointed a bellman for
every ward, whose duty was to walk up and down the streets all
night long from Michaelmas to the Annunciation of St. Mary; that on
the alarm of fire every householder was to hang up a lantern over
his door and provide an armed man: that every householder should
keep at his door a vessel filled with water; with a great many more
regulations which may be omitted, the whole showing the terrible
scare into which they had all fallen. Forty years after the Fire, Dr.
Woodward of Gresham College thus wrote to Wren (Strype, vol. i. p.
292) in a private letter that
“The Fire of London, however disastrous it might be to the then
inhabitants, had proved infinitely beneficial to their Posterity, and to
the increase and vast improvement as well of the riches and
opulency as of the buildings. And how by the means of the common
sewers, and other like contrivances, such provision was made for
sweetness, for cleanness, and for salubrity, that it is not only the
finest and pleasantest, but the most healthy City in the world.
Insomuch that for the Plague, and other infectious distempers, with
which it was formerly so frequently annoyed, and by which so great
numbers of the inhabitants were taken off, but the very year before
the Fire, viz. Anno. 1665, an experience of above forty years since
hath shewn it so wholly freed from, that he thought it probable it
was no longer obnoxious to, or ever again likely to be infested by
those so fatal and malicious maladies.”
In May 1679 the people were thrown into a panic by the discovery
of a so-called plot to burn down the City again. The house of one
Bird in Fetter Lane having been burned, his servant, Elizabeth Oxley,
was suspected of wilfully causing the fire; she was arrested and
examined. What follows is a very remarkable story. The woman
swore that she had actually caused the fire, and that she had been
persuaded to do so by a certain Stubbs, a Papist, who promised her
£5 if she would comply. Stubbs, being arrested, declared that the
woman’s evidence was perfectly true, and that Father Gifford, his
confessor, incited him to procure the Fire, saying that it would be a
godly act to burn all heretics out of their homes. The Irishmen were
also implicated; the Papists, it was said, were going to rise in
insurrection in London and an army was to be landed from France.
Five Jesuits were executed for this business, and so great was the
popular alarm, that all Catholics were banished from the City and ten
miles round.
 CHAP TER V
CONTEMPORARY EVIDENCE

I proceed to quote four accounts of the Fire from eye-witnesses.

Between them one arrives at a very fair understanding of the
magnitude of the disaster, the horrors of the Fire, especially at night,
and the wretchedness of the poor people, crouched over the wreck
and remnant of their property.
“Here”—Evelyn is the first of the four—“we saw the Thames
covered with floating goods, all the barges and boates laden with
what some had time and courage to save, as on the other, the carts
carrying out to the fields, which for many miles were strewed with
movables of all sorts, and tents erecting to shelter both people and
what goods they could get away. Oh the miserable and calamitous
spectacle! Such as happly the world had not seene the like since the
foundation of it, nor be outdone till the universal conflagration of it.
All the skie was of a fiery aspect, like the top of a burning oven, and
the light seene above 40 miles round for many nights. God grant
mine eyes may never behold the like, who now saw above 10,000
houses all in one flame: the noise and cracking and thunder of the
impetuous flames, the shrieking of women and children, the hurry of
people, the fall of Towers, Houses and Churches, was like a hideous
storm, and the aire all about so hot and inflamed, that at the last
one was not able to approach it, so that they were forced to stand
still and let the flames burn on, which they did for neere two miles in
length and one in bredth. The clowds also of smoke were dismall
and reached upon computation neere 56 mile in length. Thus I left it
this afternoone burning, a resemblance of Sodom, or the last day. It
forcibly called to my mind that passage non enim hic habemus
stabilem civitatem: the ruines resembling the picture of Troy. London
was, but is no more.”
 The next day he went to see the Fire again. All Fleet Street and
the parts around it were in flames, the lead running down the
streets in a stream, the stones of St. Paul’s “flying like granados.”
The people, to the number of 200,000, had taken refuge in St.
George’s Fields and Moorfields as far as Islington and Highgate;
there Evelyn visited them; they were lying beside their heaps of
salvage, of all ranks and degrees, deploring their loss, and though
ready to perish for hunger and destitution, yet not asking one penny
for relief. It was not money they wanted, it was food and shelter.
Can one conceive a picture more sorrowful than that of 200,000
people thus wholly ruined? Evelyn went home, and at once set to
work on a plan for the reconstruction of the City.

JOHN EVELYN (1620–1706)

Pepys has preserved fuller details:—

“So I down to the water-side, and there got a boat and through
bridge, and there saw a lamentable fire. Poor Michell’s house, as far
as the Old Swan, already burned that way, and the fire running
further, that in a very little time it got as far as the Steelyard while I
was there. Everybody endeavouring to remove their goods, and
flinging into the river or bringing them into lighters that lay off: poor
people staying in their houses as long as till the very fire touched
them, and then running into boats, or clambering from one pair of
stairs by the water-side to another. And among other things, the
poor pigeons, I perceive, were loth to leave their houses, but
hovered about the windows and balconys till some of them burned
their wings and fell down. Having staid, and in an hour’s time seen
the fire rage every way, and nobody, to my sight, endeavouring to
quench it, but only to remove their goods, and leave all to the fire,
and having seen it get as far as the Steelyard, and the wind mighty
high and driving it into the City, and everything after so long a
drought, proving combustible, even the very stones of churches, and
among other things the poor steeple by which pretty Mrs. —— lives,
and whereof my old schoolfellow Elborough is parson, taken fire in
the very top and there burned till it fell down: I to White Hall (with a
gentleman with me who desired to go off from the Tower to see the
Fire, in my boat), and to White Hall, and there up to the King’s
closett in the Chappell, where people come about me, and I did give
them an account dismayed them all, and the word was carried in to
the King. So I was called for, and did tell the King and Duke of York
what I saw, and that unless His Majesty did command houses to be
pulled down, nothing could stop the fire.”... “Walked along Watling
Street, as well as I could, every creature coming away loaden with
goods to save, and here and there sicke people carried away in
beds. Extraordinary good goods carried in carts and on backs. At last
met ye Lord Mayor in Canning Street, like a man spent, with a
handkercher about his neck. To the King’s message he cried like a
fainting woman, ‘Lord! what can I do? I am spent; people will not
obey me. I have been pulling down houses: but the fire overtakes us
faster than we can do it.’ That he needed no more soldiers: and that,
for himself, he must go and refresh himself, having been up all night.
So he left me, and I him, and walked home, seeing people all almost
distracted, and no manner of means used to quench the fire. The
houses, too, so very thick thereabouts, and full of matter for
burning, as pitch and tarr, in Thames Street: and warehouses of
oyle, and wines, and brandy and other things.... And to see the
churches all filling with goods by people who themselves should
have been quietly there at this time.... Soon as dined, I and Moone
away, and walked through the City, the streets full of nothing but
people and horses and carts loaden with goods, ready to run over
one another, and removing goods from one burned house to
another. They now removing out of Canning Street (which received
goods in the morning) into Lombard Street and further: and among
others I now saw my little goldsmith Stokes, receiving some friend’s
goods, whose house itself was burned the day after. We parted at
Paul’s: he home, and I to Paul’s Wharf, where I had appointed a
boat to attend me, and took in Mr. Carcasse and his brother, whom I
met in the streets, and carried them below and above bridge to and
again to see the fire, which was now got further, both below and
above, and no likelihood of stopping it. Met with the King and Duke
of York in their barge, and with them to Queenhithe, and there
called Sir Richard Browne to them. Their order was only to pull down
houses apace, and so below bridge at the water side: but little was
or could be done, the fire coming upon them so fast. Good hopes
there was of stopping it at the Three Cranes above, and at Buttolph’s
Wharf below bridge, if care be used: but the wind carries it into the
City, so as we know not by the water-side what it do there. River full
of lighters, and boats taking in goods, and good goods swimming in
the water, and only I observed that hardly one lighter or boat in
three that had the goods of a house in, but there was a pair of
Virginals in it.... So near the fire as we could for smoke: and all over
the Thames, with one’s face in the wind, you were almost burned
with a shower of fire-drops. This is very true: so as houses were
burned by these drops and flakes of fire, three or four, nay, five or
six houses, one from another. When we could endure no more upon
the water, we to a little ale-house on the Bank-side over against the
Three Cranes, and there staied till it was dark almost, and saw the
fire grow: and as it grew darker, appeared more and more, and in
corners and upon steeples, and between churches and houses, as
far as we could see up the hill of the City, in a most horrid malicious
bloody flame, not like the fine flame of an ordinary fire. Barbara and
her husband away before us. We staid till, it being darkish, we saw
the fire as only one entire arch of fire from this to the other side the
bridge, and in a bow up the hill for an arch of above a mile long: it
made me weep to see it. The churches, houses, and all on fire, and
flaming at once: and a horrid noise the flames made, and the
cracking of houses at their ruine.... I up to the top of Barking
steeple, and there saw the saddest sight of desolation that I ever
saw: everywhere great fires, oyle-cellars, and brimstone, and other
things burning.... Walked into the town and find Fenchurch Streete,
Gracious Streete, and Lumbard Streete all in dust. The Exchange a
sad sight, nothing standing there, of all the statues or pillars, but Sir
Thomas Gresham’s picture in the corner. Walked into Moorfields (our
feet ready to burn walking through the towne among the hot coles),
and find that full of people, and poor wretches carrying their goods
there, and everybody keeping his goods together by themselves
(and a great blessing it is to them that it is fair weather for them to
keep abroad night and day).... To Bishop’s gate, where no fire had
yet been near, and there is now one broken out: which did give
great grounds to people, and to me too, to think that there is some
kind of plot in this (on which many by this time have been taken,
and it hath been dangerous for any stranger to walk in the streets),
but I went with the men, and we did put it out in a little time: so
that it was well again. It was pretty to see how hard the women did
work in the cannells sweeping of water: but then they would scold
for drink, and be as drunk as devils. I saw good butts of sugar broke
open in the street, and people go and take handsfull out, and put
into beer, and drink it. And now all being pretty well, I took boat,
and over to Southwarke, and took boat to the other side the bridge,
and so to Westminster, thinking to shift myself, being all in dirt from
top to bottom: but could not find there any place to buy a shirt or
pair of gloves, Westminster Hall being full of people’s goods, those in
Westminster having removed all their goods, and the Exchequer
money put into vessels to carry to Nonsuch: but to the Swan and
there was trimmed: and then to White Hall, but saw nobody, and so
home. A sad sight to see how the River looks: no houses nor church
near it, to the Temple where it stopped.”

THE GREAT FIRE OF LONDON

From the fresco painting in the Royal Exchange, London, by permission
of the Artist, Stanhope A. Forbes, A.R.A., and the Donors, The Sun
Insurance Office.
 Here is a letter addressed to Lord Conway a few days after the
Great Fire:—
“Alas, my lord, all London almost within the walls, and some part
of it which was without the walls, lies now in ashes. A most
lamentable devouring fire began upon Sunday morning last, at one
of the clock, at a baker’s house in Pudding Lane beyond the bridge,
immediately burned down all the new houses upon the bridge, and
left the old ones standing, and so came on into Thames Street, and
went backwards towards the Tower, meeting with nothing by the
way but old paper buildings and the most combustible matter of tar,
pitch, hemp, rosin, and flax, which was all laid up thereabouts: so
that in six hours it became a large stream of fire, at least a mile
long, and could not possibly be approached or quenched. And that
which contributed to the devastation was the extreme dryness of the
season, which laid all the springs so low, that no considerable
quantity of water could be had, either in pipes or conduits: and
above all, a most violent and tempestuous east wind, which had
sometimes one point towards the north, then again a point towards
the south, as if it have been sent on purpose to help the fire to
execute upon the City the commission which it had from Heaven.
From Thames Street it went up Fish Street Hill into Canning
Street, Gracechurch Street, Lombard Street, Cornhill, Bartholomew
Lane, Lothbury, Austin Friars, and Broad Street northwards, and
likewise into Fenchurch Street and Lime Street, burning down all the
churches, the Royal Exchange, and all the little lanes and alleys as it
went. From thence westward it swept away Friday Street, Watling
Street, Cheapside, Newgate market, and the Prison, Paternoster
Row, St. Sepulchre’s, and so up to Smithfield Bars, and down to
Holborn bridge. Also all St. Paul’s Churchyard, the roof of Paul’s
Church, Ludgate Hill, part of Fleet Street, Blackfriars, Whitefriars,
and all the Inner Temple, till it came to the Hall, a corner of which
had taken fire, and was there most happily quenched, as likewise in
Fleet St. over against St. Dunstan’s Church: else, for aught appears,
it might have swept away Whitehall and all the City of Westminster
too, which is now left standing, together with all the suburbs: viz.
the Strand, Covent Garden, Queen Street, Lincoln’s Inn fields,
Holborn as far as the Bridge, and all Hatton Garden, Clerkenwell,
and St. John Street.
Of the City itself, from the Tower unto Temple Bar, remains only all
Smithfield and St. Bartholomew’s, being stopped there before it
came to Sir Elias Harvey’s, wherefrom, together with Sir John Shaw’s
and Gresham College and so forward, are preserved: all Bishopsgate
Street, Leadenhall Street, Duke’s Place, and so to Aldgate.
But ’tis fit your lordship should know that all that is left, both of
City and suburbs, is acknowledged, under God, to be wholly due to
the King and Duke of York, who, when the citizens had abandoned
all further care of the place, were intent chiefly upon the
preservation of their goods, undertook the work themselves, and
with incredible magnanimity rode up and down, giving orders for
blowing up of houses with gunpowder, to make void spaces for the
fire to die in, and standing still to see those orders executed,
exposing their persons not only to the multitude, but to the very
flames themselves, and the ruins of buildings ready to fall upon
them, and sometimes labouring with their own hands to give
example to others: for which the people do now pay them, as they
ought to do, all possible reverence and admiration. The King
proceeds daily to relieve all the poor people with infinite quantities of
bread and cheese, and in this is truly God’s vicegerent, that he does
not only save from fire but give life too.
 Temple Bare The West-Side
From the Crace Collection in the British Museum.

I believe there was never any such desolation by fire since the
destruction of Jerusalem, nor will be till the last and general
conflagration. Had your lordship been at Kensington you would have
thought—for five days together, for so long the fire lasted—it had
been Doomsday, and that the heavens themselves had been on fire;
and the fearful cries and howlings of undone people did much
increase the resemblance. My walks and gardens were almost
covered with the ashes of papers, linen, etc., and pieces of ceiling
and plaister-work blown thither by the tempest.
The loss is inestimable, and the consequence to all public and
private affairs not presently imaginable, but in appearance very
dreadful: yet I doubt not but the king and his people will be able to
weather it out, though our enemies grow insolent upon it.
 The greatest part of the wealth is saved, the loss having chiefly
fallen upon heavy goods, wine, tobacco, sugars, etc.; but all the
money in specie, plate, jewels, etc., were sent into the Tower, where
it now lies; and the Tower itself had been fired, but that it preserved
itself by beating down the houses about it, playing continually with
their cannon upon all that was fired, and so stopped the progress.
So great was the general despair, that when the fire was in the
Temple, houses in the Strand, adjoining to Somerset House, were
blown up on purpose to save that house, and all men, both in City
and suburbs, carried away their goods all day and night by carts,
which were not to be had but at most inhumane prices. Your
lordship’s servant in Queen Street made a shift to put some of your
best chairs and fine goods into your rich coach, and sent for my
horses to draw them to Kensington, where they now are.
Without doubt there was nothing of plot or design in all this,
though the people would fain think otherwise. Some lay it upon the
French and Dutch, and are ready to knock them all on the head,
wheresoever they meet them; others upon the fanatics, because it
broke out so near the 3rd of September, their so celebrated day of
triumph; others upon the Papists, because some of them are now
said to be in arms; but ’tis no otherwise than as part of those militias
which are, or ought to be, in a posture everywhere.
All the stories of making and casting of fire-balls are found to be
mere fictions when they are traced home; for that which was said to
be thrown upon Dorset House was a firebrand, seen by the Duke of
York upon the Thames to be blown thither, and upon notice thereof
given by his highness was for that time quenched. But there could
be no plot without some time to form it in: and making so many
parties to it, we must needs have had some kind of intelligence of it:
besides, no rising follows it, nor any army appears anywhere to
second such a design. Above all, there hath been no attempt upon
the King or Duke’s person, which might easily have been executed
had this been any effect of treason.
 Men begin now everywhere to recover their spirits again and think
of repairing the old and rebuilding a new City. I am told this day by
Mr. Chichely the City have sent to the King to desire a new model.
Vaults are daily opened wherein are found immense quantities of
pepper, spices, and wines, oils and sugars, etc., safe and untouched,
though the houses were fired: but all the cloth laid in St. Faith’s
Church under St. Paul’s is burnt. Gresham College is set apart for an
Exchange and Post Office. Leadenhall is to supply the uses of
Guildhall; and without doubt, when the Parliament meets, as much
will be done towards the restoring of the City, and in it of the
kingdom, to its ancient lustre and esteem, as can be expected from
the piety and policy of so dutiful an assembly.”
The fourth eye-witness whom I shall quote is a certain Edward
Atkyns in a letter preserved in the London and Middlesex Note-book
(p. 171):—

“Good Brother—I received your letter and shall give you ye

best account I can of our late sad fire, though it is scarcely
possible for any man fully to describe it. It began at a Baker’s
house in Pudding Lane, near Thames Street, on Sunday
morning about 2 or 3 of ye clock: and burnt doone several
houses, but could not be quencht in regard it was a narrow
place where engines could not play, and ye Lord Maior did not
think fit to pull doone eny houses to prevent ye further
spreading of ye fire: about 10 of ye clock, whilst we were at
church, there was a cry in the streets yt ye Dutch and French
were in armes, and had fired the Citty, and therefore ye
Ministers dismist their several congregations, but wee yt were
soe remote thought little of it. In the afternoon I went into the
temple garden, where I saw it had made an unhappy progresse,
and had consumed towards the Thames side many houses and
2 or 3 churches, as Laurence Pointney Church, which I saw
strongly fired, and other churches, and at last growing violent,
and meeting with many wharfes, and the wind being high, it
grew very formidable, and we began to thinke of its nearer
approach. By Monday morning it had burnt doone all Thames
Street, New Fish Street, and some part of Cannon Street, and
thereupon ye Citizens began to neglect ye fire, and in fine, and
to be short, by Wednesday evening it had burnt all the City:
yesterday I went from St. Dunstan’s Church to Bpgates Street,
and there is not one house standing betwixt those places, there
one only within the wall, but a part of these 3 streets remaining,
viz. part of Leadenhall Street, Basinghall and Bpgates Street, all
the rest burnt to the ground, and not so much as a considerable
piece of timber as I could see saved from the fire: it is
impossible almost to conceive the total destruction, all the
churches burnt, nay, some of ye churches, as Bow Church and
... have not so much as the walls standing: all the Halls, as
Guild-hall, Merchant Taylors, Mercers Chapel, Old Exchange,
burnt downe to the ground, soe yt you can hardly tell where
such a Parish or place was: I can say but this, that there is
nothing but stones and rubbish, and all exposed to the open
aire, soe yt you may see from one end of ye Citty almost to the
other. St. Paul’s Church, ye very stones, are crumbled and
broken into shivers, and slatts, and you can compare London
(were yt not for ye rubbish) to nothing more than an open field.
The Citizens were forced to remove their goods into the open
fields, and £2:10 a Cart was no deare value to carry away ye
goods, the inner Temple almost all burnt, and pulled down
except ye Temple Church, ye Hall much defaced, and ye
Exchequer Office, Sergeants Inn in Fleet Street, and all to St.
Dunstan’s Church, and soe on ye other side to Holborne Bridge:
ye King and Duke of Yorke were exceedingly active, or
otherwise I doubt the suburbs would have undergone ye same
calamity. Some have conceived it was a plott, but most, and ye
King himself, believed yt it was only ye Hand of God. Ye King
comforts ye Citizens with ye rebuilding of ye Citty, but God
knows when yt will be: ye Exchange is now kept at Gresham
College, where I heard yesterday there was a full exchange of
Merchants. My father’s house at St. Ellens stands well; the fire
began to seize upon Chancery Lane, having burnt up Fetter
Lane, and came as far as Brides Lane and Whites Alley, but,
blessed be God, suppressed, and all things safe at your house
and chambers: but Mr. Hainson of Cateaton Street Mr. Lowe has
enquired for, and cannot hear of him, his house suffered the
same calamity. Dr. Tillotson has lost many goods and £100
worth of books: he has taken a house in Lincoln’s Inn Fields,
where his father-in-law purposes to remain. 40,000 quarters of
Corne destroyed in Bridewell—being the City—store. Sir William
Backhouse has lost £1600 per an. in houses and in the benefit
of ye New River. Sir R. Lucy and ye Lady Allen and Lady Fairfax
about 3 or 400 per an. Sir Richard Browne’s house burnt to the
ground, where he has sustained great losses, and my brother
Broone likewise, for my sister being then ill, all the care was to
remove her. They and all now at ye Red Lyon, Holborne, my
sister at her sister Howards house at Rockhampton. My father
came up on Monday, and staid removing his goods till
Wednesday morning, and I sat up all ye night, but through
Mercy, Chancery Lane is yet standing, except St. John’s Head
next Lincolns ... was pulled doone by way of prevention, and
another house towards Holborne. The Parliament will certainly
meet at ye day: ye Duke of Albemarle is now in London. There
was a flying report of an engagement at sea, but not confirmed.
Several persons, foreigners, are in prison upon suspicion, but
little will be made of it, as I am informed the Attorney-General
very ill. My father and his family are well at Albany, where my
wife went on Thursday last. I had gone my circuit and my last
two counties this week, but ye fire prevented my intentions. If
we cannot find out your cousin Harrison I’le go to Totnam on
Tuesday next and inquire after him, and how it stands in
reference to your goods in his custody; but I believe he having
notice sufficient, and being a prudent man, has secured both his
owne and youre goods. Houses are now at an excessive value,
and my Lord Treasurer’s new buildings are now in great request.
I think it best yt you remove noe goods either in your house or
chambers, for I doe believe ye danger is well over, only we have
frequent alarms of fire, sometimes in one place and then in
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