AFTERMATH Contemporary documents and official papers list the following losses: 13,200 houses, 87 parish churches, six consecrated chapels, the Royal Exchange, the Custom House, 52 halls of livery companies, 3 City gates, the gaol of Newgate, four stone bridges, the Sessions House, the Guildhall (with the courts and offices belonging to it), Blackwell Hall (the central cloth emporium), Bridewell, Poultry and Wood Street Compters and St Paul's cathedral. The surveyors' calculated that it would cost in the region of £3,900,000 to rebuild the houses, and another £2,000,000 to replace the major public and municipal buildings. A further £2,000,000 was spent on the rebuilding of the cathedral. The loss of private goods and stock was estimated at £2,000,000. The official figures also include the loss of £150,000,000 worth of wine, tobacco, sugar and plums 'of which the City was at that time very full'. Losses among the booksellers and stationers have been variously estimated at £150,000 and £200,000 and at least one bookseller in St Paul's churchyard lost about £8,000 of stock, leaving him with debts of nearly £3,000. Individual losses are difficult to calculate, but the fire undoubtedly brought considerable hardship for many and not just those living within the burnt areas. As one contemporary put it "... London is ruined, England is ruined ..." Although the City of London was built of timber, and houses and streets were a bonfire waiting to happen, the fire took hold slowly and took four days to consume the capital. Thus there was plenty of time for people to save not only themselves but many of their belongings, too. We don't actually know how many people were killed in the end. The largest contemporary estimate is eight, but we have records of only five: Thomas Farryner's maid-servant; Paul Lowell, a Shoe Lane watchmaker; an old man who went to rescue a blanket from St Paul's and was overcome by smoke; and two others who fell into cellars while rescuing their belongings. For years, architects had been hankering to redesign London on a more planned, elegant model. They now had their chance. Wholesale redesign proved impossible because property owners insisted on keeping the sites of their vanished buildings, but some streets were widened and proportions changed, and the new buildings were made of brick or stone rather than wood. Crucially, planning regulations were drawn up to ensure uniformity of building style and size: two stories on lanes and by-streets, three stories on larger streets and the river front, four stories on "streets of note". The Guildhall and other civic buildings were swiftly rebuilt, and Christopher Wren designed 51 new churches for the City, incorporating classical ideas of proportion and symmetry. He also built a new St Paul's cathedral, which was to be the largest in Europe. Its great dome was influenced both by classicism and by his interest in astronomy: he intended it to be used as an observatory. St Paul's dominated the capital's skyline for centuries and continues to be a focal point of riverside London. The Great Fire did, of course lead to many good things, principally the rebuilding of the city in red brick and stone with some substantial town planning improvements. It was re-erected quickly and efficiently and without a crippling economic price tag. Most importantly, the Herculean effort of the rebuilding stimulated the economy, particularly through the building trades. A vast army of migrant workers came to recreate the capital. In their wake came the craftsmen and manufacturers needed to furnish and supply the new houses. By 1700, London �?in spite of or, perhaps, because of the fire �?was the largest city in Europe and probably the richest. And, indefinably, the spires of Wren's churches and the great dome of St Paul's gave Londoners a new self-image, what we might call "London pride". Go here to watch London burn!  Loads slow, but that's entertainment!!! PAGE GRAPHIX BY FOREVER AMBER