On this date in 1666 the Great fire of London began. Today in London there is a Monument which commemorates this event. Here are 10 things you might not know about The Monument:
At 202 feet (62 metres) high it is the tallest isolated stone column in the world. The height is significant. 202 feet is the distance from the location of the Monument to the exact spot the Great Fire of London Started in Pudding Lane. It stands on the site of the first church to be destroyed by the Great Fire, St Margaret, New Fish Street.
It is a fluted Doric column made from Portland stone topped with a gilded urn of Fire.
Once it was decided that a monument should be built, the surveyor-general of the King's Works was asked to submit a design. The person in that post at the time was none other than Christopher Wren. He wasn’t entirely responsible for the design, though. Evidence suggests that he delegated the task to one Robert Hooke, an architect in his employ. It’s not known to what extent the two worked together on the design, but Hooke’s drawings still exist, signed by Wren, meaning it’s possible all Wren did was approve them.
Wren and Hooke saw this commission as a chance to make the building a scientific instrument as well as a monument. It has a central shaft that was intended for experiments with gravity and pendulums, and there’s a tiny science lab beneath it, which is accessible through a hatch in the floor of the ticket office. The top of the shaft is covered by a lid on the urn at the top of the structure. The laboratory wasn’t used much, however, as it was found that vibrations from the heavy traffic in the area interfered with the work.
All four sides of the base have inscriptions. The South side describes, in Latin, the actions taken by King Charles II following the fire. The east side describes how the monument was built and which mayors had an influence. The North side describes how the fire started and how much damage was done. The west side has a relief sculpture representing the destruction and restoration of the city. In 1681, anti-Catholic aldermen added to the inscriptions about the fire, placing the blame firmly on Catholicism, translating from Latin as “but Popish frenzy, which wrought such horrors, is not yet quenched”; and "burning of this protestant city, begun and carried on by the treachery and malice of the popish faction”. These words were chiselled out in 1830.
Construction began in 1671 and took six years, due to Portland stone being difficult to source.
The cost of building it was £13,450 11s 9d.
It is Grade I-listed and a scheduled monument.
It’s possible to climb the 311 steps to a viewing platform for panoramic views of London.
There’s also a monument on the spot where the fire was eventually put out. It’s called the Golden Boy of Pye Corner and is located on the intersection of Giltspur Street and Cock Lane. It’s a statue of a chubby cherub, intended as a reminder that gluttony was the cause of the fire.
The first in a new series! It has invading aliens, gladiator-style contests, rivalry and romance.
The six richest people in Britain decide to hold a contest to settle the question of which of them is most successful. It will be a gladiator style contest with each entrant fielding a team of ten super-powered combatants. Entrepreneur Llew Powell sets out to put together his team, which includes his former lover, an employee of his company with a fascinating hobby, two refugees from another dimension (a lonely giant and a drunken sailor), two sisters bound together by a promise, a diminutive doctor, a former Tibetan monk initiate and two androids with a history. As the team train together, alliances form, friendships and more develop, while others find the past is not easy to leave behind.
Meanwhile, a ruthless race of aliens has its eyes on the Earth. Already abducting and enslaving humans, they work towards the final invasion which would destroy life on Earth as we know it. Powell’s group, Combat Team Alpha, stumble upon one of the wormholes the aliens use to travel to Earth and witness for themselves the horrors in store if the aliens aren’t stopped. Barely escaping with their lives, they realise there are more important things to worry about than a fighting competition.
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