London's Burning
A four-part round that conjures the panic of the Great Fire of London
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Arrangement: Ian J. Watts / Mike Wilbury · Singalongasong Band / ClassicRocks
Lyrics
London's burning, London's burning.
Fetch the engines, fetch the engines.
Fire, fire! Fire, fire!
Pour on water, pour on water.
Traditional lyrics — public domain. Arrangement © Singalongasong Band / ClassicRocks.
History & Background
History & Origin
"London's Burning" is a traditional round — a song in which multiple groups sing the same melody but starting at different points, creating a layered harmonic effect. It is typically sung in four parts, each beginning one line after the previous, so that all four lines are heard simultaneously: the city burning, the engines being fetched, the alarm being raised, and the water being poured.
The rhyme is closely associated with the Great Fire of London of 1666, which destroyed roughly thirteen thousand houses and eighty-seven churches over four days in early September. The fire began in a bakery on Pudding Lane and spread rapidly through the densely packed timber buildings of the city. "Fetch the engines" refers to the hand-operated water pumps that were the firefighting technology of the age — largely insufficient for a fire of this scale.
Whether the song actually dates from 1666 or merely uses the fire as its dramatic setting is uncertain. The earliest written record of the tune dates from around 1580, predating the fire by almost a century, which suggests either that the text was applied to an existing melody after the fire, or that an earlier version of the song was updated in the fire's aftermath.
As a round, the song has a particular choral power: all four lines heard together create the impression of chaos and urgency, the shouts overlapping as they would in an actual emergency.
