A plan of the City and Liberties of London after the dreadful conflagration in the year 1666

This is an engraving of Wenceslaus Hollar's map of London after the fire. It was printed for William Maitland's History of London in 1756 but is based on Hollar's original map of 1666-67. The white area shows the extent of the ruins - 436 acres in total (373 acres within the City walls and 63 outside). This was about one-quarter of the total size of London at the time. Over the winter this area became the haunt of thieves. They looted the destroyed buildings and dragged passers-by into cellars, robbing them and leaving them for dead. People were afraid to go there at night. The rebuilding started in a piecemeal fashion as and when people found the money. Samuel Rolle commented in 1668 'Is London a village that I see, the houses in it stand so scatteringly?' He also noticed that people were reluctant to move into their new, isolated, homes: 'they refrain to go to them till their neighbourhood be increased'.