History of firefighting Europe at the time, was the scene of several great fires in the 16th century. As a consequence, King Charles IX disbanded the residents' night watches and left the king's watches as the only one responsible for checking crimes and fires. London suffered great fires in 798, 982, 989, 1212 and above all in 1666 (the Great Fire of London). The Great Fire of 1666 started in a baker's shop on Pudding Lane, consumed about two square miles (5 km²) of the city, leaving tens of thousands homeless. Prior to this fire, London had no organized fire protection system. Afterwards,
Pudding Mill Lane DLR station been a simple passing point for trains on the otherwise single-tracked section between Stratford and Bow Church. The name of the station is taken from the nearby Pudding Mill Lane which, in turn, takes its name from the former Pudding Mill River, a minor tributary of the River Lea. This is believed to have taken its name from St. Thomas's Mill, a local water mill shaped like a pudding and commonly known as Pudding Mill. The area had also been called Knob Hill up until the 1890s. When all the other platforms on the DLR's Stratford branch were extended to