Category: Insurance history · Reviewed by Amy Price, Account Executive · Last reviewed 2026-06-05
The Great Fire of London of 2-5 September 1666 destroyed approximately 13,200 houses, 87 parish churches, St Paul’s Cathedral and most of the buildings of the City’s civic authorities. It is the proximate cause of the emergence of commercial fire insurance in England, with the first office — Nicholas Barbon’s Insurance Office for Houses — established in 1681.
Category: Insurance history Also known as: Great Fire of London, Fire of London 1666 Established / Date: 2-5 September 1666 Related concepts: Hand-in-Hand Insurance Society 1696, Sun Fire Office 1710, History of insurance
The fire began in the early hours of Sunday 2 September 1666 in the bakery of Thomas Farriner in Pudding Lane. Strong easterly winds and the closely-packed wooden construction of the City of London allowed the flames to spread rapidly. By the time the fire was brought under control on the morning of 5 September it had consumed an area of 436 acres within the walls and a further 63 acres outside, destroying the homes of an estimated 70,000 of the City’s 80,000 inhabitants. The recorded death toll was remarkably low (six confirmed deaths) although the true figure was likely higher.
Reconstruction was governed by the Rebuilding Act 1667, which prescribed standards for brick and stone construction, regulated street widths, and established a Fire Court to determine liability for rents and rebuilding between landlords and tenants. Sir Christopher Wren’s designs for St Paul’s Cathedral and 51 parish churches were the architectural legacy.
The Rebuilding of London Act 1666 (19 Car. 2 c. 3) [1] and the supplementary Act of 1670 prescribed construction standards intended to reduce future fire risk. The Fire Court, established by the same legislation, sat from 1667 to 1672 to resolve disputes between landlords, tenants and ground landlords. Although neither Act imposed any insurance obligation, the destruction of value on so vast a scale demonstrated the commercial case for fire insurance.
Before 1666 there was no commercial fire insurance in England. Various proposals had been made — most notably Hugh Audley’s of 1638 — but none had been implemented. After the Fire the case for risk transfer was unanswerable. In 1681 the speculative builder and economist Nicholas Barbon, with eleven partners, founded the Insurance Office for Houses (“Barbon’s Office”) at the back of the Royal Exchange. The Office issued the first surviving English fire policies and maintained its own fire brigade, identified by lead “fire marks” affixed to insured premises.
Barbon’s Office was rapidly imitated. The Friendly Society for Securing Houses from Loss by Fire (1683), the Hand-in-Hand Fire Office (1696), the Sun Fire Office (1710), the Union (1714), and the Westminster (1717) followed in quick succession. By 1720 the joint-stock model had been added with the Royal Exchange Assurance and London Assurance. The fire mark, the fire brigade attached to the insurer, and the surveyed premium became the standard apparatus of fire insurance.
The insurer-funded fire brigades of London were consolidated into the London Fire Engine Establishment in 1833 under James Braidwood; this was the precursor of the publicly-funded Metropolitan Fire Brigade (1866) and the modern London Fire Brigade. Many original fire marks survive on buildings and in museum collections, and the iconography (the sun, the phoenix, clasped hands) persisted into twentieth-century insurer branding.
The first surviving English fire policy is dated 1684 and was issued by Barbon’s Office on a house in the parish of St Andrew Holborn for a premium of 2.5 per cent of the sum insured per annum on a brick house and 5 per cent on a timber house — a differential pricing structure that anticipates modern risk-based premium rating.
This entry is part of the Apex Insurance Wiki. Last reviewed by Matt Bartlett on 2026-06-05. Next review: 2026-12-05.
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