The Baker's Blaze

In the cramped bakery of Pudding Lane, London, 1666, Thomas Farriner works late to meet a royal order, ignoring his wife Mary’s warnings. Their apprentice, Jack, carelessly stokes the oven, sparking a fire that erupts into the Great Fire of London. As flames engulf the wooden city, Thomas blames Jack, driving a wedge between them, while Mary fights to keep the family united amid the chaos. Across town, Samuel Pepys, a naval clerk, witnesses the inferno’s spread and urges Constable Webb to demolish houses with gunpowder to halt it—a plan met with resistance but grudging action. Jack, wracked by guilt, slips away to join a crew widening a firebreak, risking his life to slow the blaze. As the fire consumes St. Paul’s Cathedral and threatens total ruin, a shift in wind and a saving rain finally weaken it after four relentless days. Reunited in the ashes, the Farriners salvage scraps of their past—a rolling pin, a coin—and vow to rebuild, while Pepys pens a bittersweet hope for a new London rising from the devastation.