Taswell relates that the papers from the books in St. Faith’s were carried with the wind as far as Eton. The Oxonians observed the rays of the sun tinged with an unusual kind of redness, a black darkness seemed to cover the whole atmosphere. To impress this more deeply on Taswell’s memory, his father’s house was burned and plundered by officious persons offering to aid.”
A TRUE AND EXACT PROSPECT OF THE FAMOUS CITTY OF LONDON FROM S. MARIE OVERS AS IT APPEARETH NOW AFTER THE SAD CALAMITIE AND DESTRUCTION BY FIRE, in the Yeare M. DC. LXVI.
LONDON AFTER THE FIRE
From the engraving by Hollar.
CHAPTER VI
LONDON AFTER THE FIRE
Let us turn to London rebuilt after the Fire. The City now began to grow outside the walls with determination; it was found impossible to stop its expansion any longer. London spread out long arms and planted colonies, so to speak; the craftsmen, driven out of their old quarters in the City by the increase of trade, and consequently of warehouses, quays, shops, and offices, settled down in the new colonies. The City joined hands with Westminster; it ran houses along Holborn to the Tyburn Road; it reared a suburb at Bloomsbury; it turned Clerkenwell into a crowded town; it made settlements at Ratcliffe, Mile End, and Stepney; it created a river-side population beyond Wapping (see [Appendix VI].)
The map of Porter, circa 1660 (London Topographical Society, 1898), shows us the suburbs of that date.
Beginning with the east, we find a continuous line of houses “on the wall between St. Katherine’s and Limehouse.” Wapping contains two streets parallel with the river; at intervals there are stairs. What was afterwards Ratcliffe Highway is a broad road with cottages on either side, half a mile long; on the north of this road are fields intersected by country lanes. Stepney Church stands in the middle of fields. In the Whitechapel Road there are no houses beyond the church. On the north-east of the Tower is a broad open area, on the north of which stand, apparently, some of the remains of Eastminster. In the Minories, however, we look in vain for the ruins of the nunnery, though these were undoubtedly still standing at the time. Petticoat Lane, running into Wentworth Street, is the only street leading out of Whitechapel. On the north of Wentworth Street are the Spittle Fields; the Cloister and Cross of St. Mary Spital are visible. Lines of houses run north along Bishopsgate Street as far as Shoreditch Church.