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The Great Fire of London burned day and night for almost four days in 1666 until only a tiny fraction of the City remained. It came hot on the heels of the Great Plague and left the world's third largest city of the time a shadow of its former self. Was this God's judgment on wicked King Charles II?

Discover the fascinating history behind some of our resident figureheads before inventing your own

Lifeline, water source, sewer – follow the murky history of London's relationship with the River Thames

For over 300 years explorers risked their lives to search the Arctic for a route between the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans

In 1854 Robert McClure was credited as the first man to navigate the North-West Passage - although much of his journey was over ice, rather than water.

Samuel Hearne journeyed overland to search for the North-West Passage in 1770. He was the first man to walk from Hudson Bay to the Arctic Ocean.

In 1741, Anglo-Irish MP Albert Dobbs commissioned William Moor to search for the North-West Passage, in a bid to strengthen Britain's trade routes.

Thomas James's 1631 voyage to find the North-West Passage became famous thanks to his memoir, The Strange and Dangerous Voyage of Captain Thomas James (1633).

Explorer Luke Foxe led an expedition to search for the North-West Passage in 1631. He set out at the same time as rival explorer Thomas James.

In 1615, William Baffin and Robert Bylot searched for the North-West Passage. Baffin pioneered new techniques for calculating longitude.