Monument
Monument Street, London EC3

Erected in 1671 - 77 by Sir Christopher Wren, the Monument commemorates the Great Fire of London.  The fire started in the early hours of 2 September 1666 in a bakery in Pudding Lane.

The fire lasted three days and devastated four-fifths of the medieval city including 13,000 houses, 87 churches and 44 livery company halls, but only nine people perished in the fire. 

One good thing came out of the disaster - it destroyed London's brown rat population, the carriers of the Great Plague, which had killed around 100,000 Londoners the previous year.       

The Monument is a simple Doric column of Portland stone.  It is 202 feet)high and it is also said to be just west of the site of the bakery in Pudding Lane where the Great Fire began. 

The Monument is topped with a flaming urn of gilt bronze, the idea of Robert Knowles, a friend of Wren's.  In its time the Monument was the tallest isolated stone column in the world, sited on the direct approach to old London Bridge, a few steps downstream from its modern counterpart.

Around the column's base are reliefs depicting Charles II restoring the city. The Great Fire had swept away the capital's medieval timber buildings giving the opportunity to replace them in a style more suited to a new commercial era.

There are 311 steps to the top of the column and the breath-taking views from here make the hard climb worth it.  In 1842 the viewing platform was entirely enclosed with iron railings after the Monument became a notorious place for suicides.   Visitors who climb to the top are given a certificate on their way out to prove it!

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