History of London people, which was one fifth of the population. Samuel Pepys chronicled the epidemic in his diary. On 4 September 1665 he wrote "I have stayed in the city till above 7400 died in one week, and of them about 6000 of the plague, and little noise heard day or night but tolling of bells." The Great Plague was immediately followed by another catastrophe, albeit one which helped to put an end to the plague. On the Sunday, 2 September 1666 the Great Fire of London broke out at one o'clock in the morning at a bakery in Pudding Lane in
Great Fire of Whitstable, 1869 Great Fire of Whitstable, 1869 The Great Fire of Whitstable in 1869 devastated the coastal town of Whitstable in Kent, England. On the evening of Wednesday, 16 November 1869, the fire swept through the closely built area along The Wall, west of the town's harbour. Given that the population of the town was a little under 2,000, the disaster that befell the little fishing harbour must have been big news across the region, as the fire drew a crowd of 10,000 spectators. It was the local coastguard, Edwin George Lane, who on 16 November at about 10.45pm spotted flames coming