Saving a Wheel of Cheese from the Great Fire
During the Great Fire of London in 1666, famous diarist Samuel Pepys fled his home to save his most valuable possessions. Alongside his gold and scientific instruments, Pepys carefully buried an expensive wheel of Italian Parmesan cheese in his garden to protect it from the encroaching flames.
The Spark in Pudding Lane
In the early hours of Sunday, September 2, 1666, a bakery fire ignited on Pudding Lane in London. Fanned by strong easterly winds and fed by timber-framed buildings packed tightly together after a dry summer, the flames quickly outgrew ordinary firefighting methods. In a city where wood, pitch, and thatch were standard construction materials, the blaze quickly became an uncontrollable wall of fire moving steadily westward through the heart of the city.
Samuel Pepys, then a clerk of the acts to the Navy Board living in Seething Lane near the Tower of London, was awakened by his maid to see the distant glow. After initially dismissing the disturbance as a minor chimney blaze, Pepys walked to the Tower the following morning and climbed high enough to see the scale of the destruction. Witnessing hundreds of houses engulfed along the Thames and residents desperately throwing their possessions into the river, Pepys recognized that standard bucket brigades were useless against the advancing inferno.
A Royal Audience and Radical Measures
Alarmed by what he saw, Pepys took a boat upriver to Whitehall Palace to report the crisis directly to King Charles II and James, Duke of York. London's Lord Mayor had hesitated to pull down buildings to create firebreaks, fearing the cost of compensation and rebuilding. Pepys informed the monarch that unless houses were pulled down or blown up systematically ahead of the flames, nothing would stop the destruction of the capital.
Charles II instructed Pepys to return to the Lord Mayor with royal authority to order the demolition of any buildings necessary to halt the blaze. Although Pepys delivered the royal command, the municipal response remained chaotic and overwhelmed. With the wind continuing to drive the fire across the city and toward his own neighborhood and the Navy Office, Pepys realized he had to turn his attention to securing his own home and the critical state records in his care.