September 2

You might want to consider the following when you use the top brown setting on your toaster oven. Thomas Farriner was a baker who plied his trade in a building on Pudding Lane in London, England. On the 2nd of September in 1666, London was in the midst of a storm whose defining features were high winds but very little rain. At approximately 2:00 a.m., a fire broke out in Farriner’s bakery. Fed by high winds, the fire would rage uncontrollably for three days until almost the entire city had been consumed by the flames that had broken out in the bakery. Surprisingly not many people died from the fire but the greater part of London was burnt to the ground. It would be decades before London would recover. The fire did however give restoration England the opportunity to rebuild the city in what must be the most extensive urban renewal project of all time, securing Christopher Wren’s place in the pantheon of the heroes of architectural innovation.