A couple of my friends loved my poem about The Terracotta Army and suggested that writing pithy poems about past events would be a great way for children to learn about history…thinking this a great new challenge, here is my take on the events of 1666.

The Great Fire of London started in Pudding Lane,

In Thomas Farriner’s bakery, and it soon took gain,

It torched the city of London, behind the old Roman wall,

And soon there was little of value standing at all.

13,200 houses and also St Paul’s.

And 87 churches were lost to its thralls..

There were 80,000 inhabitants of London in that year,

All but 10,000 lost their houses and all they held dear.

The death toll’s unknown, although only 6 deaths were recorded,

But the poor were not counted ‘cause their conditions were sordid.

The fire started at midnight on September 2nd,

And it proved unstoppable, greedy and fecund,

The fire spread rapidly, north and west,

Till the Tower of London garrison thought it best

To use gunpowder to create effective fire breaks,

Thus negating the Mayor’s earlier hesitancy and mistakes.

Coupled with the fact that the winds died down,

That was what ultimately saved London town.

The Great Fire lasted for all of three days,

And most of the city went down in the blaze,

The Palace of Whitehall, with mortar and bricks

Was saved from that fire of 1666.