Shortly after the Plague, the Great Fire of London broke out. It commenced on the 1st September 1666, and on the 3rd September it reached the Chief Post Office, in Bishopsgate Street. In these early times, as has already been mentioned, some of the officers lived on the premises--the higher officials, at anyrate. Sir Philip Frowde was then one of the Controllers, and James Hickes was senior clerk. On the 3rd September the latter writes to Williamson as follows, dating his letter from the post house at the Golden Lion, Red Cross Street (this inn was probably a branch post office at the time):--"Sir Philip and his lady fled from the office at midnight for saftey; stayed himself till 1 A.M., till his wife and children's patience could stay no longer, fearing lest they should be quite stopped up; the passage was so tedious, they had much ado to get where they are. The Chester and Irish Mails have come in; sends him (Williamson) his letters; knows not how to dispose of the business. Is sending his wife and children to Barnet." It is not very clear whether the Post Office in Bishopsgate Street was entirely destroyed,--it was certainly destroyed in part. At any rate, on the 24th August 1667, nearly a year after the fire, an official notice was issued that the Kentish office had been removed "from the Round House to the Grand Office in Bishopsgate Street, for the better dispatch of business." Whether this Grand Office was in the old Black Swan or in other premises we are unable to say. These records make it tolerably clear that the Chief Post Office was still placed in Bishopsgate Street for some time subsequent to the fire. The early locations of the Post Office in London seem to have been as follows:-- 1635.--In Sherborne Lane, King William Street. 1642.--Inland Letter Office (under the Earl of Warwick) in Bartholomew Lane, at the back of the old Exchange. Removed afterwards to Cloak Lane, Dowgate. Removed later to the Black Swan, Bishopsgate Street, where it was at the time of the Great Fire. Was again in Bishopsgate Street after the Great Fire. Later it was removed to the Black Pillars in Bridges Street, Covent Garden. In the new regulations laid down for working the posts in 1637, it was ordered that each mail should be accompanied by a label, or what would now be called a time-bill or way-bill, and that upon this label the arrivals at the several stages should be noted, instead of upon the letters or packets as had previously been done. The labels used in 1666, specimens of which exist in the Public Record Office, are curious documents. They are like a double sheet of foolscap, but longer and narrower, and are furnished with a printed heading as follows:-- [Illustration] _FOR THE SPECIAL SERVICE AND AFFAIRS OF HIS MAJESTY._ Haste, haste. Poste-Haste.