I woke up to freezing fog, which has lasted almost all day...
There had been cold weather for some weeks, and coal fires had been stoked up to keep out the chill. In Battersea and Bankside, further coal was being burned to power the city. The air over the city was becalmed. High pressure meant little or no winds.
The smog which formed was blamed for thousands of deaths, and contributed to calls for environmental legislation which led to the Clean Air Act.
To read more visit my HODDER BLOG posts...
London has often been associated with fog. Charles Dickens mentioned the fog in the opening chapter of 'Bleak House'.
Fog everywhere. Fog up the river, where it flows among green aits and meadows; fog down the river, where it rolls defiled among the tiers of shipping and the waterside pollutions of a great (and dirty) city. Fog on the Essex marshes, fog on the Kentish heights. Fog creeping into the cabooses of collier-brigs; fog lying out on the yards, and hovering in the rigging of great ships; fog drooping on the gunwales of barges and small boats. Fog in the eyes and throats of ancient Greenwich pensioners, wheezing by the firesides of their wards; fog in the stem and bowl of the afternoon pipe of the wrathful skipper, down in his close cabin; fog cruelly pinching the toes and fingers of his shivering little ’prentice boy on deck. Chance people on the bridges peeping over the parapets into a nether sky of fog, with fog all round them, as if they were up in a balloon, and hanging in the misty clouds.
Stay safe out there tonight... the weather's turning bad again in places...
That very nice Big Ben icon was from the very talented ICONKA folk...
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