Stuart England · 1665-1666

London's plague and Great Fire, 1665-1666

In two years London suffers its last great plague and a fire that destroys most of the old city. Students use Samuel Pepys's diary, find the village of Eyam that shut itself off to protect others, and see how London was rebuilt in brick and stone.

Teach it live New Open on the map
Length
45 minutes
Ages
10–13
On the map
3 steps, AD 1665
Live lesson
7 rounds, 3 on the map
Worksheet
Two A4 pages, with Classroom
You need
A projector; phones for live

Live lesson · new in Classroom

Teach it live. The class answers on their phones.

Put the board on the projector. Students join with a six-digit code, no account needed, and tap the map: where was the frontier, where did the grain come from. Their pins drop in together when you reveal, and the closest student takes the round.

€19 per month: every lesson live, every worksheet, cancel anytime. Rome at its height runs live for free.

A live lesson on the projector: the class's pins on the map around Alexandria, the closest students listed beside it A student's phone: the question and a map to tap
7 rounds
3 places to find on the map, quiz questions, a class vote and a one-line answer.
About 15 minutes
Run it as the map step, or to open the discussion. You move on with the space bar.
A report
Every answer, per student and per round, to read back or print after the lesson.
1

Introduction

5 min

Read aloud

In two years London suffers its last great plague and a fire that destroys most of the old city. Students use Samuel Pepys's diary, find the village of Eyam that shut itself off to protect others, and see how London was rebuilt in brick and stone.

By the end of the lesson, students can

  • Describe how people in 1665 tried to stop the plague, and why most methods failed.
  • Explain how the Great Fire of 1666 started and spread.
  • Explain how London was rebuilt after the fire.
2

Explore the map

12 min

Project the map, or let students follow on their own devices. Each step opens the map at the right year and place.

a

AD 1665

A crowded port

Open the map in 1665, turn on the Cities layer and zoom in on London on the Thames. Why would a crowded port city with narrow streets suffer badly from both plague and fire?

Open this view on the map
b

AD 1666

Weather of History

Turn on Weather of History and look at Europe around 1665. These were the years of the Little Ice Age, but the summer of 1666 was long and dry. How could dry weather help a fire spread?

Open this view on the map
c

AD 1665

From city to village

Zoom out to England. Find Eyam in Derbyshire, about 220 km north-west of London. How might plague travel from a big city to a small village?

Open this view on the map
3

Class discussion

14 min

Pick two or three. They run from what happened to why it mattered.

  1. Doctors in 1665 thought plague spread through bad air. What did they get wrong, and why?
  2. Houses with plague were shut up with the family inside and marked with a red cross. Was that fair?
  3. The villagers of Eyam chose to stay in their village to protect others. Would you have stayed?
  4. Much of London burned, yet few deaths were recorded. Why might the real number be higher?
  5. After the fire, new houses had to be built of brick or stone. Why are disasters often followed by new rules?
4

Game round

9 min

Play a round of Rule History as Tokugawa Ieyasu, founder of the shogunate whose capital, Edo, burned in the great Meireki fire of 1657, nine years before London. Discuss: how should a ruler rebuild a city after a disaster?

Open Rule History
5

Worksheet

5 min

This worksheet comes with Classroom

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