The Monument to the Great Fire of London, London
The Monument is the tall fluted column before you, built to remember the Great Fire of London. Its Portland stone shaft rises from the junction of Monument Street and Fish Street Hill, with a gilded urn shaped as flames crowning the structure. The Monument was designed by Robert Hooke and completed in 1677, after construction running from 1671 to 1677.
Its height is 202 feet, and it stands 202 feet west of the bakery site in Pudding Lane where the fire began on 2 September 1666. That distance is deliberate: the column’s height matches its separation from the starting point. Look at the relief on the west side of the base.
Caius Gabriel Cibber shows London as a suffering woman being supported by Time and Providentia, while Charles II directs rebuilding with allegorical figures around him. The base also carries Latin inscriptions describing the fire, the response to it, and its reconstruction. A narrow staircase of 311 steps reaches the viewing platform near the top.
The structure even served scientific work: its central shaft was intended for telescope, gravity, pendulum, and barometric experiments. This is a memorial that also embodies the scientific ambitions of its designers.
