In September of 1666, King's baker Thomas Faryner had a small fire in his Pudding Lane bakery turn into a conflagration that destroyed 80% of the city of London.
On the quincentenary of the receipt of their Royal charter, the Worshipful Company of bakers formally apologized for starting the Great Fire, 320 years after it started.
This marker is located on the side of a bank building in Pudding Lane, which occupies the spot where the fire started.
From thr Associated Press: (
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"BAKERS APOLOGIZE FOR THE GREAT FIRE OF LONDON
MARCUS ELIASON , Associated Press
Jun. 9, 1986
LONDON (AP) _ London's bakers apologized to the mayor Monday for setting fire to the city.
The Great Fire of London happened in 1666, but in a country that not only treasures its history but often seems to be living in it, what's a mere 320 years?
So the members of the Worshipful Company of Bakers gathered in Pudding Lane at the place where the fire began. Watched by a small crowd of dignitaries and bemused bystanders, the bakers formally acknowledged what Londoners have known for some time: that the fire was started by Thomas Faryner, the king's baker, who failed to douse his oven before turning in on Saturday night, Sept. 1, 1666.
Clad in his robes and chain of office featuring sheaves of wheat and a scale, John Copeman, Master of the Worshipful Company of Bakers, unveiled a plaque in the wall of the bank that stands where Faryner had his establishment.
Copeman then presented the Lord Mayor of London, Allen Davis, with a scroll written by the bakers ''as an acknowledgement of their regret for the great damage caused by one of their number .. .''
Davis said: ''It's never too late to apologize, and I'm very happy to acknowledge his confession and say the city has approved it. ... To err is human, to forgive divine.''
There was much to forgive, even at this late date. The five-day fire, though it caused no fatalities, laid waste to 13,200 houses, 89 churches and 44 livery halls over an area of 450 acres, and to this day is known simply as the Great Fire.
The Pudding Lane ceremony was the kind of ritual which the City of London relishes - clubby, slightly comical, yet serious enough to be more than a tourism stunt. It showed how Britain's history, having never had a violent revolution to sweep out old institutions and privileges, tends to be one of peaceful continuity, to which change comes slowly and is invariably regarded with suspicion.
Fred Bentley, warden of the Worshipful Company of Bakers, said he enjoyed wearing his robes and chain in public. ''We don't feel embarrassed about it,'' he told a reporter, ''because we've been doing it for hundreds of years and it's something to be proud of.''
''One reason could be the English Channel,'' says Col. Peter Wilson, clerk of the company. ''We haven't suffered an invasion by foreign forces since olden times, and therefore things haven't been turned upside down and we're able to maintain our way of life in not so interrupted a manner as many European countries.''
The Worshipful Company of Bakers chose 1986 as the year for their apology because it is the 500th year since it was recognized by the King Henry VII as a guild.
Today bread baking is controlled by the government and the bakers' unions, but in its medieval heyday the Worshipful Company of Bakers was a powerful force in daily life, setting standards, prices and weights.
The guild is one of 94 so-called livery companies in the City of London, the capital's square-mile financial center, encompassing professions ranging from apothecaries to wax chandlers.
Some of these professions have passed into history, but their guilds retain a link, however tenuous, with the present. The Watermen and Lightermen of the River Thames still license the boats that ply London's river. The Wheelwrights' Company awards prizes for road safety innovations.
The livery companies may not wield economic clout, but they are prominent in charitable causes, and retain their influence in the city since their members alone elect the sheriffs and mayor. Thus membership in these oligarchical, mostly male bastions of civic status is as important as wearing the right tie.
Entry is reserved for sons of past members, outstanding achievers in the profession, or by ''redemption'' - a polite way of describing buying one's way into a company. The price is a well-kept secret, but membership is so important a status symbol that there is no shortage of buyers."