The Monument

The Monument to the Great Fire of London, more commonly known as The Monument, is a 202 ft (61.57 metre) tall stone Roman Doric column in the City of London, England near to the northern end of London Bridge. It is located at the junction of Monument Street and Fish Street Hill, 202 ft (61.57 metres) from where the Great Fire of London started in 1666.

Another monument, the Golden Boy of Pye Corner marks the point near Smithfield where the fire stopped. Monument tube station is named after the monument.

Constructed between 1671 and 1677, it is the tallest isolated stone column in the world.

The monument consists of a fluted Doric column built of Portland stone topped with a gilded urn of fire, and was designed by Christopher Wren and Robert Hooke. Its 202 foot (61.57 metre) height marks the monument's distance to the site of Thomas Farynor, the king's baker's shop in Pudding Lane, where the fire began.

The top of the monument is reached by climbing up the narrow winding staircase of 311 steps. A cage was added in the mid-19th century at the top of the Monument to prevent people jumping off, after six people had committed suicide between 1788 and 1842.

I recommend checking this out on your way to the Borough Market one day...

That concludes our London History lesson for today...

Cheers,
WMMc