Monument

About Monument

Monument in the City of London

The Monument to the Great Fire of London, commonly known simply as the Monument, is a fluted Doric column of stone 202 feet (61.6 metres) high in the City of London near the northern end of London Bridge, at the junction of Monument Street and Fish Street Hill; it is Grade I listed and a scheduled monument. Designed by Sir Christopher Wren with the scientist Robert Hooke to commemorate the Great Fire that broke out in a bakery in Pudding Lane on 2 September 1666 and destroyed most of the medieval city, it was built between 1671 and 1677 on the site of St Margaret, New Fish Street, the first church destroyed by the fire, and its height of 202 feet equals exactly the distance to the spot where the fire started to the east. Another monument, the Golden Boy of Pye Corner near Smithfield, marks the point where the fire was stopped. The column is crowned by a gilded bronze urn of flames, and inside a spiral staircase of 311 steps climbs to a viewing platform enclosed in an iron cage with close-up views over the City, Tower Bridge, the Thames and The Shard; those who make the climb receive a commemorative certificate on the way down. Latin inscriptions on the base recount the fire and the rebuilding of the city. Besides its commemorative purpose Hooke and Wren used it as a scientific laboratory, its hollow shaft designed to serve as a vertical telescope; it is the tallest isolated stone column in the world and one of the few landmarks in London that can be climbed for a very modest fee.

Where:

London, United Kingdom