On Tuesday, the fire spread over nearly the whole City, destroying St Paul's Cathedral and leaping the River Fleet to threaten Charles II's court at Whitehall. The fears of the homeless focused on the French and Dutch, England's enemies in the ongoing Second Anglo-Dutch War these substantial immigrant groups became victims of street violence.
Order in the streets broke down as rumours arose of suspicious foreigners setting fires. The fire pushed north on Monday into the heart of the City. By the time large-scale demolitions were ordered on Sunday night, the wind had already fanned the bakery fire into a firestorm which defeated such measures. The use of the major firefighting technique of the time, the creation of firebreaks by means of removing structures in the fire's path, was critically delayed due to the indecisiveness of the Lord Mayor, Sir Thomas Bloodworth. The fire started in a bakery in Pudding Lane shortly after midnight on Sunday 2 September, and spread rapidly. The death toll is generally thought to have been relatively small, although some historians have challenged this belief. The Great Fire of London was a major conflagration that swept through central London from Sunday 2 September to Thursday 6 September 1666, gutting the medieval City of London inside the old Roman city wall, while also extending past the wall to the west.
Central London in 1666, with the burnt area shown in pink and outlined in dashes ( Pudding Lane origin marked with a green line)
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