Page 28 - Yearbook issue try out

· 1666: The Great Fire

Plague returned to London several times, heralded extensive renewal that saw the building
culminating in the Great Plague of 1665-1666, of the Barbican Estate, and the steady rise of
which was happily resolved by the third of the buildings in the eastern wards – a trend that
City’s great fires, elegantly recorded by Citizen and continues today.
Clothworker Samuel Pepys.
This current pandemic is accelerating the digital
Neither Napoleon nor the Dutch settlers of South transformation that began with big bang and
Africa were to test the City’s defences, but both seems certain to benefit fintech companies and
conflicts sparked a patriotic fervour that resulted in those that embrace digital commerce, part-time
the formation of volunteer corps of armed citizens. working, and remote, flexible and mobile working
In the Boer War, every one of the City Imperial arrangements. IT and WCIT have their role to play.
Volunteers was admitted into the Freedom in a
ceremony in Guildhall, before departing for Cape The City can be accurately represented by the
Town. Some of the dead are recorded on the phoenix on the dome of the rebuilt St Paul’s:
memorial in Westminster Abbey. Resurgam! I shall rise again!

A few years later, during the First World War,
the City of London National Guard was raised,
affectionately becoming known as “The
Methuseliers” on account of their age. It became
the model for the Home Guard in the second
instalment.

The ravages of the Blitz saw much of the City
reduced to rubble, and many ancient livery halls
and churches were left in ruins. Incendiary bombs
were a new threat, and fires broke out all over the
City. Fortunately, the City had learned the lessons
of the past, and many treasures were removed
from the Square Mile for safety. The post-war era Ever durable: the phoenix on St Paul’s

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