Online illustrated talk: Death, Disease & the Great Fire of London!

Today's talk is going to be delivered by my friend and colleague Jean from the National Portrait Gallery.

The talk is going to cover the 'surprising' origins of the Black Death which was the deadliest pandemic recorded in human history. The Black Death resulted in the deaths of up to 75–200 million people in Eurasia and North Africa, peaking in Europe from 1347 to 1351. Plague, the disease, was caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis we'll hear how this plague evolved and jumped species - which is all rather topical today!
We'll then fast forward a few hundred years to the great plague of 1665 - The Great Plague was London's last major outbreak of the plague, a bacterial infection caused by (sounds familiar) Yersinia pestis. The outbreak began in the late winter or early spring of 1665. By the time King Charles II fled the city in July, the plague was killing about a thousand people a week! This epidemic was followed just a year later by another momentous event the Great Fire of London in 1666. The Great Fire of London was a major conflagration that swept through the central parts of London from Sunday, 2 September to Thursday, 6 September 1666. The fire gutted the medieval City of London inside the old Roman city wall and destroyed St. Paul's Cathedral...
The talk concludes with an account of rebirth and regeneration - every cloud has a silver lining 😉

To attend in the first instance RSVP. You do not need a Zoom account. But to stop Zoom bombers (persons hijacking the event - doing weird things). All you have to do is click on the location link and enter the meeting password: 693938 - Please log in around 5 minutes before it starts.

We have a form of etiquette, for example when you first enter the 'meeting room' you will be muted, I will unmute you as we start. However, when you are not speaking it is recommended that you mute yourself - this is so that others do not get a lot of background noise.

Why not have a virtual drink together too - glass of wine or beer - Coffee 'n' Cake ;)

Afterwards, we'll have our regular chit-chat social - hope to see lots of you there :)