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On 10 September 1666, five days after the Great Fire of London ended, Henry Oldenburg, secretary to the Royal Society, wrote to Fellow Robert Boyle, suggesting that members of the Royal Society take part in planning the rebuilt city: ‘I was this very morning with our president, and suggested this business to his lordship, who liked it so well, that he intends to move it tomorrow at the council of ye society.'1
Surprisingly enough, even at that early stage, Oldenburg was already late to the game. By the time he had written this, three of his colleagues were already busy drawing up rebuilding plans. Within a few days, these plans were submitted as their personal effort, thereby rendering the Royal Society's role in this ‘brainstorming’ futile.2 On 13 September, John Evelyn delivered his plan personally to the king, only to find out that Christopher Wren had preceded him (Figures 1 and 2).3 More plans soon followed, including one by another member of the Royal Society, the mathematician Robert Hooke, a plan that was endorsed by the Court of Common Council on 28 September.4
Fig. 1.
Sir John Evelyn's plan for rebuilding London after the fire. Credit: Wellcome Collection. Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).
[Figure omitted. See PDF]
Fig. 2.
Sir Christopher Wren's plan of London as reproduced by Gwynn. Credit: Wellcome Collection. Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).
[Figure omitted. See PDF]
Other plans were composed by Peter Mills, an architect and a member of the city's Bricklayers' company,5 the cartographer Richard Newcourt,6 the merchant Francis Lodwick,7 and the military officer Valentine Knight (for Newcourt's map, see Figure 3).8 All told, seven plans were produced in a space of two weeks. To those we may add the short discourse written by the philosopher William Petty, which seems like the headlines to a lengthier project that he never embarked upon,9 and the anonymous map included in a print made in Amsterdam in 1666, which is considered by some to be Robert Hooke's plan (Figure 4).10
Fig. 3.
One of the maps in Richard Newcourt's Three maps of London. Source: London Metropolitan Archives, City of London CLC/481/MS03441, from the Richard Newcourt Collection.
[Figure omitted. See...