The Monument - London - Places of Interest

In 1666 in a fire started around midnight in the bakery of Thomas Farriner in Pudding Lane, close to London Bridge. The Great Fire of London went on to destroy large parts of the old city and led to a major rebuilding programme. As part of this new construction a monument was proposed that would commemorate the losses caused by the Great Fire and like so much of the new London built at that time it was designed by Sir Christopher Wren.

Completed in 1677 and called simply The Monument, its a column 202 feet high made from Portland stone and is the tallest freestanding stone column in the world, topped out with a flaming urn of copper symbolising the Great Fire.

Inside the column is a narrow spiral staircase which visitors can climb to the viewing platform at the top. It’s 311 steps up but The Monument offers fantastic views over that part of central London. There’s a doorway and ticket booth on the eastern side of the base and its normally open everyday from 9.30am-5.30pm with admission £2. Unfortunately at the moment visitors won’t be allowed in until December 2008 as The Monument is undergoing an 18 month refurbishment.

The base of the column features reliefs depicting the fire and the reconstruction. The Monument’s height of 202 feet is said to be the distance from the start of the fire and on the north side of the base is the inscription ‘In the year of Christ 1666, on 2 September, at a distance eastward from this place of 202 ft, which is the height of this column, a fire broke out in the dead of night which, the wind blowing, devoured even distant buildings, and rushed devastating through every quarter with astonishing swiftness and noise … On the third day … at the bidding, we may well believe, of heaven, the fire stayed its course and everywhere died out.’

The Monument is located just north of London Bridge on Monument Street, the nearest Tube is Monument on the District and Circle Lines.