On 2 September 1666, following a long, dry summer, fire broke out at the king’s bakery in Pudding Lane and swept across the City of London. 

The fire spread rapidly, swallowing hundreds of acres and demolishing over 13,000 houses, 90 churches and important city structures, such as St Paul’s Cathedral and the Royal Exchange.

The fire also destroyed The Gazette’s printing premises at Baynard’s Castle. Missing one issue as a result, The London Gazette reappeared on Monday 10 September, having been printed at the Savoy. 

Issue 85 of The London Gazette carried a ‘short but detailed’ account of the fire as a way of ‘satisfying the minds of so many of His Majesties good Subjects’.

See the original account Issue 85 of The London Gazette