Remember, Remember the 2nd of September

For it was on 2nd September, 1666, that the Great Fire of London began in Pudding Lane.

November 5, 1605, has gone down in history as the date when Guy Fawkes tried to blow up the Houses of Parliament. After an anonymous tip off, on the night of November 4, 1605, Fawkes was discovered in the cellars beneath the House of Lords with 36 barrels of gunpowder. The thwarting of the Gunpowder Plot is celebrated with fireworks and the ceremonial burning of a 'Guy' on top of bonfires across the country.

September 2, 1666, has not made a similar mark on the national psyche because that was the day that marked the beginning of the Great Fire of London. After the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot in November, 1605, there was widespread relief that a plot to kill the King - who was due to open Parliament on November 5 - and turn the country into a Catholic nation once more was averted. On September 2, 1666 the fire raged for four days - efforts to stop it spreading were thwarted by strong winds and inadequate fire fighting equipment (buckets and ladders) and hastily assembled volunteers whose sole source of water was the River Thames. The fire started in the early hours of Sunday morning in a bakery belonging to Thomas Farryner, the royal baker, which was located on Pudding Lane. Most buildings in the capital were wooden and the properties hemmed into Pudding Lane were no exception.

Amazingly, only five deaths were recorded, though an estimated 13,000 houses, 87 churches and an area one and half miles by half a mile was razed to the ground.

Visitors to the English capital can hear what how Sir Christopher Wren overcame several obstacles in his bid to build a new St Paul's Cathedral after the Great Fire with the Ride & Stride, London travel guide, The City & The Tower audio walking tour and the City & South Bank Circular mp3 guided tour.

Listeners to the City & The Tower, London travel guide or the City & South Bank Circular podcast guided tour will hear how what we would recognise as modern London emerged from the flames of September 1666. To hear an audio sample from the City & The Tower, London city walking tour please click here.

A monument commemorating the Great Fire (imaginatively called the Monument) was designed by Sir Christopher Wren and his friend Robert Hooke. The Monument is 202ft (62m) high. It is said that the Monument stands precisely 202 ft away from Farryner’s bakery.

There are five Walk Talk Tour mp3 guided tours of London. The Walk Talk Tour London travel guides are available in French, German and Spanish.

Each Walk Talk Tour podcast guided tour of London costs just £5.95. All of the London visitor guides - with the exception of the longer City & South Bank Circular, London iPod travel guide, which is combination of the Ride & Stride city guide and the City & The Tower mp3 guided tour - can be completed in two hours. Customers purchasing two Walk Talk Tours simultaneously will receive a twenty per cent discount. Buy three at the same time and get thirty per cent off.

Each Walk Talk Tour audio London city walking tour consists of commentary points. Listeners receive clear instructions explaining how to get from A to B. In addition, each Walk Talk Tour London travel guide comes with a free downloadable map - for you to print off - so you won't miss a thing.

Unlike with a conventional guided tour, listeners to a Walk Talk Tour are free to stop, start and listen to any part of the commentary again as they see fit - or the weather dictates. To make the most of your Walk Talk Tour mp3 guided tour of London take a look at our Where & When pages which provide information about the opening times and admission costs of major visitor attractions along each tour's route.