Museum of London opens exhibition for Great Fire of 1666

The Museum of London on Saturday opened an interactive exhibition for the Great Fire of London in 1666.

The exhibition "Fire! Fire!" combines a variety of sights, sounds, smells, textures and interactive exhibits to immerse visitors in the events before and during the Great Fire.

On Sept. 2, 1666, a fire began at a bakery shop on Pudding Lane in London and rapidly spread to the whole city and lasted four days as most of buildings at that time were made of wood and streets were narrow. The Famous St. Paul's Cathedral was destroyed in that fire.

The exhibition begins on an imagined Pudding Lane on the eve of the fire, bringing to life old scenes through theatrical works inspired by 17th-century illustrations as well as silhouettes and sounds of Londoners going about their everyday life.

Entering Thomas Farriner's bakery, visitors then witness the rapid progress of the Great Fire as it spreads across a map of London of 1666 projected onto a giant loaf of bread.

Nestled among the remains of damaged houses, the Museum of London has rich collections of the Great Fire, including a variety of scarred and warped household objects such as pottery, plates, bricks, tiles, ceramics and glass which were uncovered in excavations at the end of the 20th century. A selection of these rarely seen artifacts can be touched and more closely examined with microscopes and magnifying glasses.

One of the star objects is the museum's fire engine from the late 1670s, faithfully restored for the exhibition using traditional techniques and materials. Other pieces of firefighting equipment on display include a squirt, a leather bucket and a fire hook.

"This exhibition tells the story of the Great Fire in London in 1666, and here at the Museum of London, we are telling more of the story of the Great Fire in London that has not been told before," said Rebecca Lang, the conservator of the museum.

The museum's Curator Meriel Jeater told Xinhua that the highlight of this exhibition is some of the archaeological remains, which have been found in the city of London by archaeologists over the last few years.

"It's quite a well-known event that lots of people in this country learned in school, but we really want to go into the story more depth," she added.

(APD)