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Lithograph showing the scene two days after the 1861 Tooley Street Fire at Cotton's Wharf after a painting, now in the permanent collection of the Museum of London Docklands, by Captain J.W. Anderson.
The fire began in one of the many warehouses on Tooley Street, stocked with millions of pounds worth of tallow, jute, hemp, and other dry goods. The old St. Olave's Church can be seen on the right, just west of the conflagration.
The fire, which took two weeks to extinguish completely, became a spectacle, drawing an estimated 30,000 onlookers. Due to the enormous cost of the blaze, the insurance companies that funded the fire service London Fire Engine Establishment successfully lobbied the government to create the publicly-funded Metropolitan (later London) Fire Brigade.
"The Tooley Street fire." London Fire Brigade. https://www.london-fire.gov.uk/museum/history-and-stories/the-tooley-street-fire/
![[The Illustrated London News. April 17, 1869] Proposed Sites for the New Law Courts.](https://storage.googleapis.com/raremaps/img/small/80985.jpg)
