The Monument was opened in 1677 to commemorate the Great Fire of London. It was designed through a collaboration between Sir Christopher Wren of St Paul’s Cathedral Fame and Dr Robert Hooke, a renowned philosopher. It is 61 meters high and there are 331 steps to climb to reach the top. The official website provides lots of information about the Monument for those that want to know more.

Quite often the time I have available to take the photographs I want is limited. So the photographs that I actually take have to count. So here, at the Monument I had two specific photograph opportunities in mind; the spiral staircase and the views from the top, as well as some photos from outside.

I knew that the spiral staircase photo would prove difficult because my camera’s sensor doesn’t perform well in low light and I didn’t have a tripod with me. Still I tried and failed to take a decent photo. This photo is a good example of what I had in mind.

Having climbed to the top I was disappointed to find that the entire platform was covered in mesh, which ruled out my ambitions of taking some panoramic photos. Why have they gone to such lengths to prevent people jumping off the Monument? Because according to officially recorded statistics more people have died by jumping or falling off (eight), than were actually killed during the Great Fire of London (six). The figure of six deaths seems low when you consider that nearly 90{9bc1cc8a9198725c785dc299d4853e65ac3850b4f9eac8bd629e2a5d8cbd0524} of old London was consumed by the fire. As this article relates, the actual death toll was probably much, much higher.