For the third year running, the City of London turned out to celebrate its most beloved diarist, Samuel Pepys.

 

Set on the nearest Friday to 2 September, Pepys Day marks the Great Fire of London in 1666. In his diary that morning Pepys reported that “above 300 houses” had burned overnight along Fish Street by London Bridge.

 

A crowd of tourists and history enthusiasts gathered this morning to see the gates of Temple Bar in Paternoster Square opened by the Company of Pikemen and Musketeers, followed by readings from the diary itself by an actor dressed as Pepys.  

Masters of several livery companies attended and later held a reception hosted by the Worshipful Company of Chartered Architects, whose hall is located at Temple Bar.