Amazingly, only six people died even though four-fifths of the city was burnt to the ground. On 5th September, after four days of fighting the great fire, the east wind dropped and a breeze came in from the north to end the fire. One of the most famous disasters in London's history, the Great Fire of 1666 devastated the heart of England's capital, destroying more than 13,000 houses and badly damaging landmarks including St Paul's Cathedral and the Royal Exchange. The Great Fire of London was a major conflagration that swept through the central parts of London from Sunday, 2 September to Thursday, 6 September 1666. John Dryden commemorated the fire in his poem Annus Mirabilis in 1667. . In his poem “Annus Mirabilis” salutes London upon her survival of the plague and the Great Fire in 1666 (john Dryden). So wrote one eyewitness after the Great Fire of London in 1666, when a chance spark from a baker’s oven led to a four-day conflagration which burned down 13,000 homes and left around 100,000 of London’s inhabitants homeless. Throughout his poem he interprets the Great fire as patriotic because it gave London the chance to recreate or redesign the city. The fire gutted the medieval City of London inside the old Roman city wall.It threatened but did not reach the City of Westminster (today's West End), Charles II's Palace of Whitehall, or most of the suburban slums. Reddaway (1940) The Building of London by John Schofield (1984) Top. Annus Mirabilis is a poem written by John Dryden published in 1667. What was the damage from the fire? The Rebuilding of London After the Great Fire by T.F. About the author. 10 things you (probably) didn’t know about the Great Fire of London. How did the Great Fire of London end? It commemorated 1665–1666, the "year of miracles" of London.Despite the poem's name, the year had been one of great tragedy, including the Great Fire of London.The title was perhaps meant to …