National Geographic Documentaries

Great Fire of London: The Untold Story (2011x61)

Air date: Dec 19, 2011

You all know the story about the Great Fire of London. That the fire was started by accident in a bakery on Pudding Lane, and the inferno rapidly engulfed the City of London in September 1666, burnt for four days, destroying everything in its path. But how many of you are aware that at the time many Londoners believed that the fire was started deliberately? And as suspicions grew, London lynch mobs attacked immigrant groups, prompted by a widely-held belief that it was an act of arson committed by a foreign power?