great fire of london

[suez21630]

where did people escape to when the fire was taking place

[sholay]

South of the river.

[Tatty Rollox]

.... this is what Pepys witnessed "Everybody endeavouring to remove their goods, and flinging into the river or bringing them into lighters that lay off; poor people staying in their houses as long as till the very fire touched them, and then running into boats, or clambering from one pair of stairs by the waterside to another. And among other things, the poor pigeons, I perceive, were loth to leave their houses, but hovered about the windows and balconies, till they some of them burned their wings and fell down". This is what Pepys saw, and here is a general view of the fire from about where Tower Bridge is today .....

[jno]

anywhere they could. I suspect crossing the river would have been difficult (only one bridge, and boats would have been crowded). Many went north to the hills, to places like Hampstead Heath, but most I think to Moorfields and other open areas not far away.

[SteveSxx]

Don't forget that London was 1/20th the size (or less) than it is today - so despite the density of housing - there was probably only a couple of miles to open countryside from anywhere in the city.