Map shows incredible plan to make London more like New York after Great Fire

A startling map shows how rebuilding London was modelled on New York following the Great Fire in 1666. The Great Fire destroyed 436 acres of land (75 per cent of the city), which included 13,200 houses and 87 of 109 churches.

The revelation was made on TikTok by The London Spy whose four-minute video details the plans made by famous architect Sir Christopher Wren. The video was captioned: “After the great fire of London of 1066, Christopher Wren designed a new rational London that was approved by King Charles the second. However, no one could agree to allow their old house sites to be built over, and therefore he had to settle for creating a new skyline instead of the 53 churches that he rebuilt.

“These churches continued to dictate the skyline in central London well into that with the beginning of the 20th century, and even now they control skyline Access points of theo to allow St Paul's Cathedral to be seen from multiple locations in the far distance. Therefore he exerts a greater control over London than he ever anticipated.”

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Amazingly, the capital very nearly resembled New York with the proposed block system. As you can see in the map, Wren’s proposal would have had London resembling the East Coast city as it would have had a grid system.

However, this was scuppered as there were disputes when people went to re-mark the sites of their old homes. The London Spy said: “No sooner had the fire burnt down than people were out with their pegs and bits of string trying to mark out where their houses had been, but unfortunately there was no trace.

“In most cases, even the deeds had been blown up or exploded by the flames.” You can read more about London’s rebuilding process post-fire on the UCL website here.

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