On This Day In History: The Great Fire Of London – On July 10, 1212

AncientPages.com - On July 10, 1212, a fire started south of the Thames in Southwark, London, United Kingdom.
Over the years, London has experienced many horrible fires, such as the Great Fire of London in 1666. The fire raged for days destroying many buildings but killing only a few people.

The Great Fire of London, with Ludgate and Old St. Paul's. Painting 1670. Credit: Paul Mellon Collection in the Yale Center for British Art. Public Domain

The Great Fire of 1212, also known as "the Great Fire of Southwark," was the second of London's two great medieval fires.

The flames destroyed Our Lady of the Canons, Southwark's cathedral church of St Mary Overie, and most of Borough High Street. The fire then reached London Bridge, which had only just been rebuilt in stone, and the structure survived the blaze.

The fire also spread into the City of London, but the significant loss of lives occurred on London Bridge. The situation was horrible. Everyone on the bridge was now trapped as the fire had spread to both sides of the river. People fleeing the fire in Southwark converged with people from the river's northern side to help.

King John had authorized the construction of houses on the bridge to rent, but these were lost to the flames, too.

People on the London Bridge who were not killed by the flames either drowned in the river or were crushed while trying to board overloaded rescue boats.
How many people died is uncertain, but there were about 1,000 to 12,000 fatalities, depending on the source.
Some accounts claim about 3,000 people died in the Great Fire of 1212, but this high amount was disputed considering that London's population was only 50,000.

The earliest account of the 1212 fire appears in the Liber de Antiquis Legibus ("Book on Ancient Laws"), written in 1274.

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