Rising beside Fish Street Hill, the Monument is one of the City of London's most recognisable landmarks. It commemorates the Great Fire of 1666 and the city that was rebuilt afterwards. This short history draws on the Monument's own website and the Historic England list entry.
The fire that prompted it
According to the Monument website, the Great Fire began on the evening of Sunday 2 September 1666 in a bakery on Pudding Lane belonging to the King's baker, Thomas Farriner. It ended on Wednesday 5 September. The same source gives about 13,200 houses and 87 churches destroyed, and six officially recorded deaths, while noting that historians suggest more people may have died without being recorded.
Who designed it
Historic England records that the Monument was designed by Sir Christopher Wren and Dr Robert Hooke. The Monument website puts the emphasis slightly differently, saying Hooke designed the column in consultation with Wren. Either way, two of the great minds of Restoration London shaped it.
Building the column
Historic England says the Monument was erected by the City Lands Committee of the Corporation of London between 1671 and 1677. The Monument website gives its completion as 1677. It is a fluted Doric column of Portland stone, topped with a gilt-bronze flaming urn. Historic England also credits Edward Pierce with carving the four corner dragons and cartouches, and Caius Gabriel Cibber with the sculptural design of the west panel.
The column stands on the site of the Church of St Margaret, which was destroyed in the Fire.
The numbers
- Height: 202 feet (61 metres).
- Distance from the fire's start: 202 feet west of the spot on Pudding Lane where the fire began. Historic England notes that the total height equals that distance.
- Viewing platform: 160 feet (48.7 metres) above ground, reached by 311 spiral steps.
- Shaft: 36.5 metres high and 4.5 metres in diameter, according to Historic England.
A column and a laboratory
The Monument website explains that Wren and Hooke also intended the column to double as a scientific instrument: a zenith telescope for gravity and pendulum experiments, with a small laboratory beneath. The plan was abandoned because the surrounding area was too busy. It is a nice reminder that the Monument was designed by scientists as well as architects.
Inscriptions
Historic England describes inscriptions on three sides of the pedestal. The north side tells of London's destruction, the south side of its restoration, and the east side records the years and mayoralties in which construction began, continued and was completed.
Looking after it
The list entry records that the urn was regilded in 1834. In 1954 the urn was regilded again, the stone steam-cleaned and wartime bomb scars removed. Further conservation of the finial, stonework and interior followed in the 1990s and in 2007 to 2009. Today it is a Grade I listed building, owned, funded and managed by the City of London.
Why it still matters
The Monument is a rare thing: a memorial that is also a viewpoint, a piece of science and a piece of civic pride. It tells the story of a City that chose to remember a catastrophe by building something lasting. If you plan a visit, check the official Monument website for current details before you go.