While fires were not unusual, the poor fire-fighting capabilities and inadequate management led to spreading – only leather buckets; primitive ‘squirters’; and long hooks for pulling down buildings were the tools available.   Thousands were made homeless by the fire, and set up camps in fields around the city. Within days, plans were being considered for the rebuilding and Christopher Wren given task of designing new churches and a new St Paul’s Cathedral. His 52 new parish churches became a 17th-18th tourist attraction, including the new cathedral.

The fire was one of the most infamous disasters to strike London, and is an integral part of British history, and featured in the education National Curriculum. For this stamp issue, Royal Mail decided to adopt a fresh way of telling the story of the Great Fire.  The "graphic novel’ style of illustration, re-imagines the events with accuracy (as contemporary illustrations do not exist and depictions of the Fire made afterwards tended to over-dramatise events). Working closely with the expert curator at the Museum of London, the stamp designs feature the artwork of John Higgins and convey the drama of the events chronologically across the six stamps, documenting the start, spread and end of the Great Fire of London in September 1666..