This fire, though it consumed 13,000 houses and laid waste 400 streets, compelling 200,000 persons to camp out in the country, has always been regarded as one of the greatest blessings London ever knew.
London had been visited by a terrible plague, and the city was built with such cramped and narrow streets, the upper stories of the houses projecting and nearly touching one another, that the infection was borne from house to house, and it did not seem possible to stamp out the disease, because there was no means of properly airing and purifying the city.
The horrible disease would seem to have passed away, when suddenly there would be a fresh outbreak, carrying off hundreds of victims, and bringing terror into every heart again.
Then the great fire broke out. For four days it raged and consumed everything in its path, but at the same time it so thoroughly purified the city that the plague was stamped out for good and all.
The present fire occurred in the most crowded part of the city, in the heart of the business quarter.
London is not laid out like an American city, in blocks and squares, with broad straight avenues running for miles, crossed at regular intervals with wide and open streets.
It is, in the older part, a network of narrow roadways, with courts and alleys lying back of them. The streets turn and bend and twist and go in every direction, and leading out of them are other little winding streets. These side turnings are delightful for those who know London well, because you can turn down here and up there, and cut off corners this way and save miles that way, by threading through these strange byways that lead in and out of the highways.
In case of fire, these time-saving lanes and alleys are most dangerous to the welfare of the city, for they are very narrow, with houses on either side, and flames can easily reach from one side of the street to the other.
This is precisely what happened at the recent fire. It sprang from side to side of these narrow ways, until much of the business portion of London was in flames.
There has been a good deal of talk about this fire, because the first engine did not reach the scene of the disaster until fifteen minutes after the call had been sent, and it has been said that the English firemen are not nearly so expert as the American.