Next week the Museum of London will launch the second in a series of three Minecraft maps recreating the Great Fire of London, following the first which launched on 29 July 2016.
Titled Great Fire 1666: The Fire, the second map will show how a spark in a bakery on Pudding Lane turned into the Great Fire which raged for four days in September and destroyed a quarter of the capital, going down in history as one of the worst disasters to ever hit London.
Players will relive the story of the Great Fire in a series of mini games; evacuating residents and their belongings, choosing which of their own household items to save and getting stuck into fighting the flames as ordinary Londoners did in 1666. Using Minecraft versions of 17th-century leather buckets, fire squirts, gunpowder and even a wooden, hand-pumped fire engine from the Museum of London’s collections, players will learn the most effective ways of combating the blaze.
Playing as a journalist from the London Gazette whose offices burnt down on the second day of the fire, gamers will encounter historical figures from the time including King Charles II, Thomas Farriner the baker and famous diarist Samuel Pepys, as well as a singed cat that narrowly escaped the flames.
Great Fire 1666: The Fire will be available to download for PC and Mac at www.museumoflondon.org.uk/discover/great-fire-1666 from 2 September 2016, the day the fire began 350 years ago. There will also be an opportunity to see the latest Great Fire 1666 map in action at the Museum of London from 12-4pm on Saturday 3 and Sunday 4 September as part of the Great Fire anniversary weekend family festival.
