I. Of the Damages in the City of London, and Parts adjacent
Indeed the City was a strange Spectacle, the Morning after the Storm, as soon as the People could put their Heads out of Doors: though I believe, every Body expected the Destruction was bad enough; yet I question very much, if any Body believed the Hundredth Part of what they saw.
The Streets lay so covered with Tiles and Slates, from the Tops of the Houses, especially in the Out-parts, that the Quantity is incredible: and the Houses were so universally stript, that all the Tiles in Fifty Miles round would be able to repair but a small Part of it.
Something may be guest at on this Head, from the sudden Rise of the Price of Tiles; which rise from 21 s. per Thousand to 6 l. for plain Tiles; and from 50 s. per Thousand for Pantiles, to 10 l. and Bricklayers Labour to 5 s. per Day: And tho' after the first Hurry the Prices fell again, it was not that the Quantity was supply'd; but because,
1st, The Charge was so extravagant, that an universal Neglect of themselves, appear'd both in Landlord and Tenant; an incredible Number of Houses remain'd all the Winter uncovered, and expos'd to all the Inconveniences of Wet and Cold; and are so even at the Writing of this Chapter.
2. Those People who found it absolutely necessary to cover their Houses, but were unwilling to go to the extravagant Price of Tiles; chang'd their Covering to that of Wood, as a present Expedient, till the Season for making of Tiles should come on; and the first Hurry being over, the Prices abate: and 'tis on this Score, that we see, to this Day, whole Ranks of Buildings, as in Christ Church Hospital, the Temple, Asks-Hospital, Old-street, Hogsden-Squares, and infinite other Places, covered entirely with Deal Boards; and are like to continue so, perhaps a Year or two longer, for Want of Tiles.
These two Reasons reduc'd the Tile-Merchants to sell at a more moderate Price: But 'tis not an irrational Suggestion, that all the Tiles which shall be made this whole Summer, will not repair the Damage in the covering of Houses within the Circumference of the City, and Ten Miles round.
The next Article in our Street Damage was, the Fall of Chimneys; and as the Chimneys in the City Buildings are built in large Stacks, the Houses being so high, the Fall of them had the more Power, by their own Weight, to demolish the Houses they fell upon.
'Tis not possible to give a distinct Account of the Number, or particular Stacks of Chimneys, which fell in this fatal Night; but the Reader may guess by this Particular, that in Cambray-House, commonly so called, a great House near Islington, belonging to the Family of the Comptons, Earls of Northampton, but now let out into Tenements; the Collector of these Remarks counted Eleven or Thirteen Stacks of Chimneys, either wholly thrown in, or the greatest Parts of them at least, what was expos'd to the Wind, blown off. I have heard Persons, who pretended to observe the Desolation of that terrible Night very nicely; and who, by what they had seen and enquired into, thought themselves capable of making some Calculations, affirm, They could give an Account of above Two Thousand Stacks of Chimneys blown down in and about London; besides Gable Ends of Houses, some whole Roofs, and Sixteen or Twenty whole Houses in the Out-Parts.