This weekend was the 350th anniversary of the Great Fire of London, so The Tate Modern erected a fire garden with performers and fire-spewing sculptures.
The best first-hand report of the fire is famed diarist Samuel Pepys' account:
Some of our maids sitting up late last night to get things ready against our feast today, Jane called up about three in the morning, to tell us of a great fire they saw in the City. So I rose, and slipped on my night-gown and went to her window, and thought it to be on the back side of Mark Lane at the farthest; but, being unused to such fires as followed, I thought it far enough off, and so went to bed again, and to sleep. . . . By and by Jane comes and tells me that she hears that above 300 houses have been burned down tonight by the fire we saw, and that it is now burning down all Fish Street, by London Bridge. So I made myself ready presently, and walked to the Tower; and there got up upon one of the high places, . . .and there I did see the houses at the end of the bridge all on fire, and an infinite great fire on this and the other side . . . of the bridge. . . .
Bonus video: Compagnie Carabosse has created similar installations elsewhere, like this 2013 installation commemorating cultural ties between Morocco and France:
Image: Andrea Vail
