The Great Fire of London Cipher

FireOfLondon

This cipher to decode is based on Bacon’s Cipher with a secret message hidden in a passage about the Great Fir of London. The sheet explains how to decrypt it and is suitable for younger children. For a harder puzzle, just provide the encrypted message, and give scaffolded hints if needed.

It is a fun way to introduce binary, and to show it is about more than 1s and 0s! It uses a binary encoding of letters – the same idea that ASCII and UNICODE now use as the general way all characters are encoded in a computer.

It also introduces Tudor / Stuart history and supports literacy, making words fun things to play with.

Direct younger students to ‘A Bit of CS4FN’ to find out more.

Direct older students to CS4FN to find out more.