Treasury
The Inner Temple Yearbook 2021–2022
THE FIRE COURTS Professor Jay Tidmarsh (Notre Dame Law School) in conversation via webinar with Master Donald Cryan for the First Selden Society and the Inns of Court Annual Lecture held on Wednesday 21 October 2020
The Great Fire of London (1666) © Painting by Philippe-Jacques de Loutherbourg, circa 1797
T Donald Cryan: The idea of having this webinar on the Fire Court was conceived at about the same time as the terrible fire at Grenfell tower in West London. Many, many lives were lost. Little did we know then that there would be fire followed by plague, in the form of the Covid-19 pandemic. In many ways, the situation which has arisen is rather like the situation that existed when the Fire Courts came into being in 1666. Jay, perhaps you could paint a picture for us of what was happening in London in 1666? Jay Tidmarsh: I would say that the situation in London is grim, especially after the fire. It is not that there isn’t a willingness to rebuild the City of London, but there are financial and legal impediments to do so. But London was rebuilt, and I think it is in no small measure because of the operations of the Fire Court. Then, of course, it was plague and then fire. Now it is fire and then plague. DC: Can we start by understanding what London was like after the Great Plague, and the period leading up to the fire? During the COVID-19 lockdown, if you went into the city, it was virtually empty. Might that be a reasonable comparison to how it was in 1666? JT: I think there are some comparisons. The Great Plague begins in London in April 1665. It has more or less run its course by March of 1666, but it is not unreasonable to think that as much as a quarter of the City of London died between 1665 and 1666. The City of London itself was teetering on the brink of financial ruin at this time. Its guild system, its ability to control trade in the metropolitan area, was collapsing. Roughly a quarter of its revenues came from rents, and the rental market had plummeted as a result of the plague. Then came the Great Fire.
DC: A Great Fire like that could never have come at a good time, but it seems that it could hardly have come at a worse time? JT: I think that is right. The Great Fire’s devastation of this wonderful medieval city was nearly complete. The fire destroys about 13,000 buildings. The Royal Exchange, the Customs House, most of the churches, many of the other buildings in the city are gone. The fire burns all the way down to the Inner Temple, where the Duke of York and his intrepid band of sailors fortunately saves the Inner Temple from destruction.
The Great Fire’s devastation of this wonderful medieval city was nearly complete. The fire destroys about 13,000 buildings. The Royal Exchange, the Customs House, most of the churches, many of the other buildings in the city are gone. The fire burns all the way down to the Inner Temple, where the Duke of York and his intrepid band of sailors fortunately saves the Inner Temple from destruction.
39
