"London was....no more"

[Tyburn]

Below are two beautifully presented videos about The City of London looking at two events that ruined the city completely, and how the City has recovered each time.

The first is the Great Fire of London, one day a baker left his oven on by accident, and overnight the entire square mile burned down, Old Saint Paul's Cathedral was amoung the buildings that were lost in a fire that burned an for the entire length of a week in the year 1666AD

The second looks at the Blitz of London, and the pictures are something that Americans should be mindful of, outside of Washington DC during the 1812 War, your cities have never experienced this, its an eye opener to see just how much devistation a bombing raid on a city can achieve. Saint Paul's was struck twice during a major Blitz in London, which flattened nigh on everything in the Square mile EXCEPT FOR the Cathedral, who was hit only twice, once in the north Transept, and a well placed bomb which distroyed the original Wren High Altar, on its rebuilding, the East End chapel behind the High Altar was dedicated to the United States of America, and those who were killed whilst stationed in England, its known as The American Memorial Chapel and holds the only pannels containing stained glass windows in the entire Building.

I hope you enjoy...because its beautifully narrated the best bit is what one local did to save his wine and parmasan cheese or maybe the tale of what Sir Chrisopher Wren discovered on a piece of stone after the fire when planning his rebuilding of the Cathedral, or better still, possibly, the three hundred year old Tree which grows in the courtyard of a church distroyed during the 1666 Great Fire....and is still present amoungst the urban sprawl today! Like the Dome of Saint Paul's Cathedral, this Tree survived even when virtually everything else all around it was completely razed by the blitz pf World War Two

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dn6E_4g4UAw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gk0Mke82azs

Please note, these Videos really are centred on The City of London itself, being roughly a Square Mile only in size, the Docklands, and Canary Wharf the business centre) today almost NOBODY lives IN The City of London itself, its almost entirely business centres, mueseums, transportation centres, Livery Guild Halls, Royal Residences or Churches (or which there are more then forty, not including SPC within the Mile)