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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
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Jack Jewers

OPINION - London was warned about the Great Fire of 1666 — this summer is a wake-up call

A drought lasting months. A blisteringly hot summer that dried up rivers, baked the ground, and made wood as dry as tinder. Warnings of disaster in the face of inaction, ignored for too long, with devastating consequences.

This is not, in fact, the story of climate change and the summer of 2026, but one of the most momentous events in English history. September 2026 marks the 360th anniversary of the Great Fire of London — a conflagration that laid waste to four-fifths of the capital.

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