Frank Hudgell was the Keeper of The Monument for a number of years.

The Monument

Monument Street, London EC3

 www.towerbridge.org.uk

The Monument was built to commemorate  the great fire of London which started in the early hours of 2nd September 1666 in a bakery in Pudding Lane. The fire lasted three days and divested four- fifths of the medieval city including 13,000 houses and 87 churches , but only nine people perished in the fire. It was built by Sir Christopher Wren who also built St Paul's Cathedral which is nearby.

The Monument is topped with a flaming urn of gilt bronze, the idea of Robert Knowles, a friend of Wren's. In its time the Monument was the tallest isolated stone column in the world, sited on the direct approach to old London Bridge, a few steps downstream from its modern counterpart.

Around the column's base are relief's depicting Charles II restoring the city. The Great Fire had swept away the capital's medieval timber buildings giving the opportunity to replace them in a style more suited to a new commercial era.

There are 311 steps to the top of the column. In 1842 the viewing platform was entirely enclosed with iron railings after the Monument became a notorious place for suicides.