Monument

The Monument - east and south

Inscription

{East face - Latin inscription with a bronze plaque below:}
Translation of the Latin inscription above:
(This pillar was) begun, Sir Richard Ford, knt., being Lord Mayor of London, in the year 1671; carried higher in the Mayoralties of Sir George Waterman, knt., Sir Robert Hanson, knt., Sir William Hooker, knt., Sir Robert Viner, knt., and Sir Joseph Sheldon, knt.; and finished in the Mayoralty of Sir Thomas Davies, in the year of the Lord 1677.

{South face - Latin inscription with a bronze plaque below:}
Translation of the Latin inscription above
Charles the Second, son of Charles the Martyr, King of Great Britain, France and Ireland, defender of the faith, a most gracious prince, commiserating the deplorable state of things, whilst the ruins were yet smoking provided for the comfort of his citizens, and the ornament of his city; remitted their taxes, and referred the petitions of the magistrates and inhabitants of London to the Parliament; who immediately passed an Act, that public works should be restored to a greater beauty, with public money, to be raised by an imposition on coals; that churches, and the cathedral of St. Paul's, should be rebuilt from their foundations, with all magnificence; that the bridges, gates, and prisons should be new made, the sewers cleansed, the streets made straight and regular, such as were steep levelled and those too narrow made wider, markets and shambles removed to separate places. They also enacted, that every house should be built with party-walls, and all raised of an equal height in front, and that all house walls should be strengthened with stone or brick; and that no man should delay building beyond the space of seven years. Furthermore, he procured an Act to settle beforehand the suits which should arise respecting boundaries, he also established an annual service of intercession, and caused this column to be erected as a perpetual memorial to posterity. Haste is seen everywhere, London rises again, whether with greater speed or greater magnificence is doubtful, three short years complete that which was considered the work of an age.

Site: The Monument (4 memorials)

EC3, Monument Street

Built 1671-7, designed by Christopher Wren and Robert Hooke as a monument to the Great Fire and as a scientific instrument. Each step is exactly 6 inches high. The very top of the edifice has a hinged lid and the spiral staircase surrounds a void (rather than a solid shaft) so the whole height can be used by a giant pendulum, or as a telescope, or (and who does't want to do this?) for dropping things.

'Hooke’s laboratory' is a room below ground not normally open to the public but Londonist (who have an 'access all areas' pass) have been there.

The column is 62m high, and it stands that same distance from the supposed site of the start of the fire.

The column stands on a plinth, three faces of which carry Latin texts with translations. This all amounts to a lot of text but the inscriptions are not very photogenic so we have treated each pair of faces as a memorial: west and north together, east and south together.

In all this verbiage we draw your attention to the reference to "Popish frenzy" at the end of the (English version) of the inscription on the north face. This is explained at The Monument, which is an excellent resource.

2016: Great post from Londonist re The Monument suicides showing fascinating contempory newspaper reports with quite surreal drawings.

In George Gissing's 1894 novel 'In the Year of Jubilee' a young man shows a lady, whom he does not know very well, around the City, in which he works, and takes her to the top of the Monument, where they enter into a sort of engagement, dependent on the success of his career.

2021: The City of London must have had some money sloshing around - they've installed a few random plaques in the paved area at the base of The Monument, two of which are commemorative. We noticed them in 2021 but they could have been there for years. The area was pedestrianised in 2006 and refurbished 2007-9.

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the subjects commemorated on the memorial on this page:
The Monument - east and south

Subjects commemorated i

Great Fire of London

Started on a Sunday morning. After 4 days the destruction included: - an area...

Read More

King Charles II

Reigned: 1660 - 1685. Born at St James's Palace. The son of the beheaded Char...

Read More

King Charles I

Born Fife. Until the age of 11 he was only the 'spare' but then his 18-year o...

Read More

Sir Thomas Davies

Lord Mayor of London, 1676-7.  Pepys's bookseller.  The first Stationer Lord ...

Read More

Sir Richard Ford

Lord Mayor of London. Born and buried at Bexley, Kent.  One of the commission...

Read More

Show all 10

This section lists the subjects who helped to create/erect the memorial on this page:
The Monument - east and south

Created by i

King Charles II

Reigned: 1660 - 1685. Born at St James's Palace. The son of the beheaded Char...

Read More

This section lists the other memorials at the same location as the memorial on this page:
The Monument - east and south

Also at this site i

Fish Street Hill plaque

Fish Street Hill plaque

First known as Brigge Street, then New Fishe Street, Fish Street Hill has bee...

Read More

Plaque to a lost plaque commemorating the Great Fire

Plaque to a lost plaque commemorating the Great Fire

This plaque appears to be that oddest of things, a plaque commemorating a los...

Read More

The Monument - west and north

The Monument - west and north

The bas relief by Cibber is worthy of close examination.  It shows a woman on...

Read More

Nearby Memorials

Islington war memorial - Islington Green

Islington war memorial - Islington Green

N1, Islington Green

This replaced the WW1 shrine that was erected in 1918, which was always intended to be a temporary memorial, but wasn't replaced until 20...

3 subjects commemorated, 2 creators
St Saviours, Pimlico war memorial

St Saviours, Pimlico war memorial

SW1, Lupus Street, St Saviours, Pimlico

The list of names are presented in two columns but unusually they are not listed alphabetically. Apart from the same surnames being group...

War dead | WW1, WW2
37 subjects commemorated
Dulwich College WW1 memorial

Dulwich College WW1 memorial

SE21, College Road, Edward Alleyn House - garden

On the south side of the monument is a simple crest with three roses and a chevron inverted with the Latin text "Detur Gloria Soli Deo" (...

2 subjects commemorated
Edmonton war memorial - Edmonton Green

Edmonton war memorial - Edmonton Green

N9, The Broadway, The Green

{Front face of monument:} To our glorious dead Erected by the people of Edmonton in loving and grateful memory of her sons who fell in th...

3 subjects commemorated
Eagle Squadrons

Eagle Squadrons

W1, Grosvenor Square

{On the front of the pillar, facing north, into the square, below a carved image with "E. S." and a spread eagle clutching arrows in its ...

War dead, War served | WW2, Other war
291 subjects commemorated, 3 creators

Previously viewed

Laura Ashley

Laura Ashley

Dress designer and interior decorator. Born Laura Mountney at 31 Station Terrace, Dowlais, near Merthyr Tydfil. She married Bernard Ashley in 1949 and they began designing and printing tea towels a...

Person, Craft / Design, Wales

1 memorial
Clink prison

Clink prison

The Clink Prison is the name given to all the prisons that have stood on a number of sites in this vicinity. The first prison in 1127 was a cellar in the Palace of the Bishop of Winchester, and the...

Building, Law

2 memorials
Times Square

Times Square

Area of New York City, which is the centre of the Broadway theatre scene. It is two adjoining triangles rather than an actual square. Originally called Longacre Square, it was renamed in 1904. It i...

Place, Architecture, USA

1 memorial
Robert H. Selbie

Robert H. Selbie

General Manager and one of the Directors of the Metropolitan Railway Company,

Person, Industry

1 memorial
Daisy Parsons

Daisy Parsons

Marguerite "Daisy" Parsons was born in Poplar as Marguerite Lena Millo. When she was young her parents moved to Canning Town, part of West Ham. Working in a factory showed her how men and women wer...

Person, Gender Issues, Politics & Administration

1 memorial