Great Fire of London: Burning down the house

We Are History

Angela Barnes and John O'Farrell

History

4.9 • 802 Ratings

🗓️ 20 June 2023

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Angela Barnes and John O'Farrell dust off more delightful and unbelievable details from the pages of history. This time: How most of London was destroyed after a baker ignored his wife’s advice to check if the fire had gone out, saying ‘Oh, what’s the worst that could happen?’ Get all episodes a week early – when you support We Are History on Patreon: https://patreon.com/WeAreHistory “Does one tip the man with the corpse cart? It’s one of those embarrassing social dilemmas.” – John O’Farrell “We need a radical solution to these wooden houses being so close together – if only there was some way of starting again…” – Angela Barnes “Inflammable and flammable mean the same thing. I studied linguistics, this annoys me” – Angela Barnes “Angela, you're pinpointing the real tragedy of the Great Fire there.” – John O’Farrell Reading List: By Permission of Heaven: The Story of the Great Fire of London by Adrian Tinniswood. We Are History is written and presented by Angela Barnes and John O’Farrell. Audio production by Simon Williams and artwork by James Parrett. Lead Producer is Anne-Marie Luff. Group Editor is Andrew Harrison. We Are History is a Podmasters Production. https://twitter.com/wearehistorypod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to another edition of the podcast that dares to mock the rich and powerful,
0:10.7	mostly because they've been dead for hundreds of years.
0:13.0	Yep. If you want hard-hitting satire, this is the place. So look out William Gladstone. We don't
0:17.7	care who we ever pop at. So this week on We Are History, it's one of those, I love these, John, I get excited.
0:23.9	Because it's one of those famous events where you think, yeah, I know that.
0:26.7	Why are they doing that?
0:27.9	And then you dig into it and you realise that it's more than just the bare headlines.
0:31.8	So, John, you've chosen the Great Fire of London in 1666 because we know men just love a good fire, don't they, John?
0:40.8	Do the cooking, no chance.
0:42.8	But on a fire, on a barbecue, suddenly all the men gather around, deeper discussion about the right sort of kindling.
0:49.1	You love it.
0:50.1	I don't actually have a barbecue, Angela.
0:51.7	My American co-writers think it's the weirdest thing that I do not cook meat outdoors.
0:56.3	It's like saying I didn't own a television or a computer or a swimming pool.
1:00.2	And I explained to them, I actually have an inflatable paddling pool from B&Q that we got for the dog.
1:04.5	That's lovely, John.
1:05.6	But you really don't have a barbecue?
1:06.8	No, it's like annoying a barbecue.
1:09.0	It's so much work just to cook a bit of chicken outside.
1:11.9	Are you even a man?
1:13.0	Probably not.
1:14.9	So let's set the scene then.
	...

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