On This Day In History: The Great Fire Of London – On July 10, 1212

MessageToEagle.com – On July 10, 1212, a fire started south of the Thames in Southwark, London, United Kingdom.
Over the course of years, London has experienced many horrible fires such as for example the Great Fire of London that took place in 1666 and raged for days destroying many buildings, but thankfully killing only a small number of people.

The Great Fire of 1212, also known as “the Great Fire of Suthwark” was the second of the two great medieval fires of London.

The flames completely destroyed Our Lady of the Canons, Southwark’s cathedral church of St Mary Overie along with most of Borough High Street. The fire then reached London Bridge that had only just been rebuilt in stone, and the structure itself survived the blaze.

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The fire spread also into the City of London, but the greatest loss of lives occurred on London Bridge itself. People fleeing from the fire in Southwark converged with people coming from the northern side of the river to help. The situation was horrible because everyone on the bridge was now trapped as the fire had spread to both sides of the river.

King John had authorized the construction of houses on the bridge, the rents from which were supposed to pay for its maintenance, and it appears that these were lost to the flames.

People on the London Bridge who weren’t killed by the flames either jumped and drowned in the river, or were crushed as they tried to board overloaded rescue boats.
How many people died is uncertain. Some accounts claim about 3,000 people died in the Great Fire of 1212, but there are also those who think the number is too high considering the fact that London’s population was only 50,000 at the time.

The earliest account of the 1212 fire appears in the Liber de Antiquis Legibus (“Book on Ancient Laws”), written in 1274.

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