In this lesson, we are going to ‘kill two birds with one stone’. That’s an idiom which means to
complete two tasks with one action. I am going to give you some listening practice
and at the same time, teach you about an event in British History: The Great Fire of London.
This is an upper-intermediate to advanced lesson so you can use this to practice your listening
if you are at that level, or to challenge yourself if you’re not quite there yet.
Before we begin, we will go through some of the vocabulary which is not
often taught when learning a new language but you will need to fully understand this story.
Blaze, flames - these are words which will be used to describe the fire.
To make a story more interesting, it is important to find synonyms for words
which are used multiple times. Flammable - easily set on fire.
Wood - material which is made from the trunk or branches of a tree.
Straw - material which is made from dried stalks of grain.
Fire brigade - the organised group of people who are trained and employed to fight fire.
Extinguish - to cause a fire to stop. Burn - to be damaged by fire.
Burn down - to be completely destroyed by fire, particularly in reference to buildings.
To flee - to run away from a place or situation of danger.
The past tense of ‘to flee’ is fled, which is the form of this word used in the story.
Gunpowder - an explosive powder used in fireworks. Historians - people who are experts in history.
Diary - a book in which one keeps a daily record of events and experiences.
Monument - a structure which is constructed to commemorate an important person or event.
Just after midnight on the 2nd September 1666, a fire began in a bakery on Pudding Lane in London.
The blaze spread quickly for several reasons: Firstly, because of the high
population in London, houses were built very close together so the fire was able to spread
quickly. Secondly, many of the houses were made from flammable materials, such as wood and straw.
These building materials were prohibited because of a history of large fires in the city,
but the cheap materials were still used by many people despite this.
Thirdly, it had not rained in London for 10 months so the city was very dry.
Finally, there was a strong wind which blew the flames quickly towards London Bridge. All of these
conditions made it easy for the fire to spread quickly and difficult to get it under control.
The fire brigade tried desperately to extinguish the flames using water but they were unsuccessful.
This was made particularly difficult by London’s narrow streets, meaning that they did not have
the space for the equipment to be effective. Unfortunately, in 1666 we did not know as
much about how to stop a fire as we know today. The fire lasted for 4 days and burned down over
13,000 homes, 87 churches and many famous buildings including St Paul’s Cathedral.
Many people fled by boat on the River Thames to get away from the flames.
Eventually, a plan was suggested to blow up an area of houses and buildings in the fire’s path
to prevent it from spreading and to put it out.
Gunpowder was used to destroy those buildings and by the next morning,
the fire had finally stopped. More than 70,000 people were made homeless as a result of the fire.
Six people were recorded as dead. It’s thought that many more people lost their lives in the
flames as historians claim that the deaths of poorer people would not have been recorded.
The most famous text we can use to learn about the Great Fire of London is the diary of Samuel Pepys,
who could see much of the destruction from his home, which was not affected.
The fire continues to influence the City of London hundred of years later. Many houses were rebuilt
using brick instead of wood to prevent fires spreading so rapidly in the future
and a large monument was erected in the city
to remember the Great Fire of London, which can still be seen today.
So that’s the end of this lesson. What did you think?
Did you find it difficult? Was it interesting to learn about history? Let me know in the comments
whether you liked this new style of lesson and if you did, I will make more videos just like this.