Cold weather and windless conditions, collected pollutants mostly from the burning of coal to form a thick layer of smog over the city. The worst air pollution event of the history of the United Kingdom, medical reports estimated that 4,000 had died prematurely and 100,000 more were made ill because of the smog’s effects on the human respiratory tract. More recent research suggests that the number of fatalities was considerably greater at about 12,000.
Read this comment on another website:
I was born on 5th December, 1952. My mum had a rotten time when she was in labour, because a man had to walk in front of the ambulance to make sure they didn’t hit anything. Apparently every couple of minutes he would bang on the front of the vehicle to say move ahead about 6 ft. Eventually I was born on the steps of St. Mary’s Paddington,(or at least my head was). Mum said I was put in an incubator. I was probably the only person in London enjoying fresh air.
Chrissie Fyrde
3 responses to “London Smog 1952”
We experience a similar thing here in Christchurch for a few weeks in mid-winter. On really cold, windless nights, a phenomenon known as ‘inversion’ traps all the smoke particulates from the wood burners that many people still use to heat their homes. If it’s a particularly cold night and the fires have been going all night, the air pollution can get pretty bad.
I loved the Retronaut website by the way. Spent ages yesterday trawling through it! Lots of great stuff.
Paul forgot to say – Christchurch smog is now a thing of the past as they banned open fires last year. Thank goodness.
Errr, wrong! Ban on open fires and non-compliant wood burners was lifted after the February earthquake to help people heat their homes over the winter.
Hey, I know, let’s have a blog barney!