London smog
Toxic smog + an anticyclone = disaster
Alex Q. Arbuckle
January 1952
Hell is a city much like London<br>A populous and a smoky city - Percy Bysshe Shelley
London has always been host to dreary mists and fogs, but in the wake of the Industrial Revolution, they took on a more sinister character. Coal plants and factories expelled thousands of tons of chemicals, particles and other pollutants. These often bonded with moisture in the air, creating a noxious, smoky fog — smog.Variations in barometric pressure and temperature could sometimes cause thick smog to settle over London for days at a time, restricting visibility and causing health problems.The most notorious incident — the “Great Smog” — occurred in December 1952. A weather phenomenon known as an anticyclone essentially placed a lid of warm air over London, trapping all of the city’s emissions at ground level. Visibility was nonexistent, and the city was paralyzed. When the fog lifted after five days, at least 4,000 people had died, with tens of thousands sickened.The disaster was one of the sparks for the modern environmental movement, and led to legislation reducing the amount of air pollution in the UK.These photos, taken 11 months before the Great Smog, show London carrying on despite pea soup conditions.
The fogs are ancient Britons. They met the boat when the ancestors of Boadicea landed. Taking advantage of a northern island, rich in rivers and diversity of soils, they roam about on their little cat feet as freely as they did before anyone had heard of smoke abatement. - The Times of London, 1952
It's like you were blind. - Stan Cribb, Funeral Director
