Watch: Magic Grandad - Famous People (Samuel Pepys) 1994

Grandad tells the children about the importance of taking fire precautions at home. Fire quickly takes hold and can burn down a whole building in quite a short time. Three hundred years ago, there was a terrible fire in London. It started in a baker’s shop in Pudding Lane and lasted for four days. He does some magic and takes the children to meet someone alive at the time, Mr. Samuel Pepys. We know that what he wrote in his diary about the fire was true because the monument put up to the victims of the fire is still standing today. Collect some pictures of people who lived in the seventeenth century.
Samuel Pepys worked for much of his life as an official in the Admiralty. He is best remembered for the famous diary he wrote between 1660 and 1669, the year of his wife’s death and his failing eyesight. The diary was written in a type of shorthand, which was not deciphered until the nineteenth century. This code, together with Pepys’ fear of blindness, might be compared with Louis Braille’s life and the method of reading he invented.
Pepys’ diary is a remarkable eyewitness account of contemporary life, including detailed descriptions of the great disaster of the decade – the Plague (1665-66) and the Great Fire of London (1666). The Watch programme concentrates on the second of these events, which is also resourced here.
The fire began on 2 September 1666, in a bakery in Pudding Lane. The flames soon grew out of control, spreading through the tightly-packed, timber-framed houses and unchecked by the inadequate fire-fighting equipment of the time. Pepys carried news of the fire to King Charles II, who ordered him to tell the Mayor to pull down more houses and make a fire-break. The Mayor, however, was unable to get people to obey as they were concerned with saving their own belongings. The fire was only brought under control when enough houses were blown up with gunpowder and the wind changed direction.
The fire raged for four days, destroying half of London. While only four people were killed, thousands were left homeless and destitute. Gradually, the city was rebuilt and Sir Christopher Wren was given the task of designing most of the new churches, including St Paul’s Cathedral.
Song: London’s Burning