Key Stage 1 history · Events beyond living memory

KS1 Great Fire of London: a guide for parents

The Great Fire of London in September 1666 is one of the most popular topics in Years 1 and 2. Children learn what happened, why the fire spread so fast and how we know, using Samuel Pepys’s diary and other sources. It is a favourite because it is a true story with a clear beginning, middle and end, and it is a first chance to practise using evidence.

The Great Fire of London, explained

The National Curriculum asks schools to teach about events beyond living memory that are significant nationally or globally. It suggests the Great Fire of London as one example, and many schools choose it, though others pick different events. In the early hours of Sunday 2 September 1666, a fire started in a baker’s shop in Pudding Lane, near London Bridge. The baker, Thomas Farriner, and his family escaped through an upstairs window. London at that time was crowded, with wooden houses packed close along narrow streets and upper floors leaning out over the road. After a dry summer and with a strong wind blowing from the east, the flames moved quickly.

There was no fire brigade. People used leather buckets, hand-operated squirts and pumps, and long hooks to pull down buildings and make firebreaks, gaps that the flames could not cross. King Charles II and his brother James joined the effort, and in the end houses were blown up with gunpowder to make wider gaps. The fire burned for about four days, and by Thursday 6 September it was out. More than 13,000 houses and 87 churches were destroyed, including the old St Paul’s Cathedral, and many thousands of people lost their homes. Only a small number of deaths were recorded.

Afterwards, rules were made so that new buildings in the City had to be built of brick or stone, and streets were made wider. The architect Christopher Wren designed a new St Paul’s Cathedral and many new churches. A tall stone column called the Monument was built near where the fire began, so that people would remember it. Children are usually taught these as results of the fire: what changed afterwards, and why.

How do we know all this? The most famous source is the diary of Samuel Pepys, a government official who watched the fire from a boat on the river and from a church tower, and wrote down what he saw. He even buried his wine and cheese in a pit in his garden to keep them safe. There are also paintings, maps and later stories. Children learn to ask who made each source and when, and to see that a diary written at the time is a different kind of evidence from a picture painted afterwards. The fire is also long ago, 360 years in 2026, so it is a good test of a child’s sense of time.

Words your child will hear

Eyewitness: Someone who saw the event happen and can say what they saw.
Diary: A day-by-day account written by a person. Pepys’s diary is a written source.
Firebreak: A gap made on purpose, by pulling down buildings, so that flames cannot jump across.
Timber: Wood used for building. Many houses in 1666 had timber frames.
Source: Anything that gives us information about the past, such as a diary, a painting or a map.
Monument: A tall structure built to help people remember an important event or person.
Rebuild: To build again what has been destroyed.

What the National Curriculum says

The programme of study for Key Stage 1 says:

Pupils should be taught about events beyond living memory that are significant nationally or globally
Pupils should ask and answer questions, choosing and using parts of stories and other sources to show that they know and understand key features of events.
Pupils should understand some of the ways in which we find out about the past and identify different ways in which it is represented.

Objectives from the National Curriculum in England, © Crown copyright, used under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Try it: why did the fire spread so fast?

Using pictures of the narrow streets and what we know from Samuel Pepys and other sources, explain why the Great Fire of London spread so quickly.

Ask the question and gather clues. Good history answers start with evidence, not guesses, so we look at pictures, a diary and a map.
Clue from the houses: pictures of the streets show wooden buildings very close together, with upper floors leaning out, so flames could easily jump from one house to the one opposite.
Clue from the weather: the summer had been dry, so the wood was dry too, and accounts from the time describe a strong wind blowing the fire along.
Clue from fire fighting: there was no fire brigade. People had only buckets, hand pumps and hooks, so the fire was hard to stop once it had begun.
Put the clues together in one answer using the word “because”, and say which clue came from which source.

The fire spread quickly because the houses were made of wood and built very close together, the summer had been dry, a strong wind blew the flames along, and there was no fire brigade, only buckets, hand pumps and hooks.

Common mistakes and how to help

Thinking all of London burned down and that very many people died

Dramatic pictures and songs make it look as though the whole city was lost, and a huge fire sounds as if it must have killed thousands.

What helps: The fire destroyed most of the old walled City, but not the whole of London, and only a small number of deaths were recorded. Many people escaped by the river or fled the city, but lost their homes.

Believing the baker did it on purpose, or that someone else started it deliberately

Stories often need someone to blame. At the time, rumours spread that foreigners had set the fire.

What helps: Historians think it was an accident that began in a bakery, probably from a spark. Ask your child what evidence they would need to say someone did it on purpose, and whether rumours count as evidence.

Thinking it was fought by firefighters with hoses, as it would be today

Children picture the modern response, with sirens and hoses, because it is the only one they know.

What helps: Talk about what people had then: buckets, hand pumps and hooks. Ask why a bucket of water doesn’t help much when the whole street is burning.

Thinking the fire was “not that long ago”, or putting it near the Victorians

1666 is just a number to a six-year-old, and all old things blur together.

What helps: Put it on a home timeline. It is about 360 years ago, the Victorian age ended about 125 years ago, and a grandparent’s childhood is about 50 to 60 years ago. Pepys was alive long before photographs existed, which is why we have paintings and a diary rather than photographs.

How to help at home

Keep a diary for one day. Write or draw what you did, in order, as Pepys did. Then ask: what would someone 300 years from now learn about us from this page, and what would they not know?
Build a street from cardboard. Make two rows of cardboard houses with a narrow gap, then a wider gap. Talk about why flames would pass more easily across the narrow one. Never use real flames, candles or matches for this.
Make your own fire safety plan. Test the smoke alarm with your child and plan the way out of your home. Practise “get out, stay out”. It turns a historical story into something that makes your family safer.
Find the story in a picture. Look at a painting or picture of the fire in a library book. Ask what you can see, what you think the people are doing and whether the artist was there at the time.
Add 1666 to your timeline. Mark the year on your family timeline, with your child’s birth year, a grandparent’s childhood and the Victorians. How far away is it?