Great Fire of London general; and more particularly in this business of the fire, laying it all upon him." Pepys was a senior official in the Navy Office by then, and he ascended the Tower of London on Sunday morning to view the fire from a turret. He recorded in his diary that the eastern gale had turned it into a conflagration. It had burned down several churches and, he estimated, 300 houses and reached the riverfront. The houses on London Bridge were burning. He took a boat to inspect the destruction around Pudding Lane at close range and describes a "lamentable" fire, "everybody
Capriccio of the City of London Fire of London column built in 1677 by architect Sir Christopher Wren who was commissioned to reconstruct much of the city after the fire. Towards the back of the scene is Wren's St Paul's Cathedral which was built between 1676 and 1710. Capriccio of the City of London Capriccio of the City of London is an early 18th century oil painting made by the Dutch Griffier family, who became well known in England. Jan Griffier and his children, Jan and Robert, created the landscape. This canvas shows London almost a century after the devastating Great Fire of London of September