This card marks the real turning point of house-building, for it shows the Great Fire of London, which ripped through the timber and plaster buildings leaving but few survivors, not even St. Paul's Cathedral being spared .
When the flames had finally died down, there was the certain knowledge that there could no longer be such conflagration. And the solution was to build houses, and indeed all buildings, in brick. Not just that, but to widen the streets, because the flames easily leapt across the former narrow streets, where the top storeys of the houses often almost touched. In truth, to build a new Capital City from the literal ashes of the old one, using fire resistant materials like brick for the walls and tiles for the roof, and removing all traces of combustible ones like wood and straw.
Some thirteen thousand homes were completely rebuilt in under five years, and public buildings too, including a brand new St, Paul`s Cathedral;.
And it also led to something else, the first ever private home insurances, against fire, with the introduction of the "fire mark", indisputable proof that the house holder had paid up.
Now this is the much later version of the original set by W.D. & H.O. Wills, which was issued in 1912. That was our Card of the Day for the 1st of April, 2024, and on that page you will find the entry from our original Wills reference book.
This version of the set is only described in our original World Tobacco Issues Index, as :
- HISTORIC EVENTS. Sm. Nd. (50.) See H.464. ... F52-23
And that remains the entry in our updated version, save a new card code, of F756-550