( FROM THE INTERNET) When a severe cold spell hit London in early December 1952, Londoners did what they usually did in such a situation; they burned more coal to heat up their homes. Then on December 5, 1952, a layer of dense fog engulfed the city and stayed for five days. Since the smoke from the coal burning in homes, plus all of London’s usual factory emissions, had been prevented from escaping into the atmosphere by an inversion, the fog and smoke combined into a rolling, thick layer of smog. Londoners, used to living in a city known for its pea-soup fogs, were not shocked to find themselves surrounded by such thick smog. Yet, although the dense smog did not instil panic, it nearly shut down the city from December 5 to December 9, 1952. Visibility across London became extremely poor. In some places, visibility had literally gone down to one foot, meaning that you couldn’t see your own feet when looking down nor your own hands if held out in front of you. Transportation across the city came to a standstill and many people didn’t venture outside for fear of getting lost in their own neighborhoods. At least one theater was closed down because the smog had seeped inside and the audience could no longer see the stage.It wasn’t until after the fog lifted on December 9 that the deadliness of the smog was discovered. In the five days the smog had covered London, over 4,000 more people had died than usual for that time of year. In the following weeks, approximately 8,000 more died from exposure to what has become known as the Great Smog of 1952.My Story.
In 1952 my mother my sister Avril, and myself lived at No 5 , Cardinal Road, Eastcote in SW London. Avril and I went to a catholic school which was in a place called Ruislip. I was 7 years old and my sister was 14 years old. Every school day Avril and myself used to get the 225 bus up Field End Road about 2 miles to Eastcote underground tube railway station where we would catch a Piccadilly train to Ruislip – about three stops down from Eastcote . In London every year we had got used to thick Fogs caused mostly by thick smoke from factories and from our home fires – we used to burn coal and “firebricks” which were bricks dipped in coal tar ! They burned very fiercely and gave out lots of very thick black smoke ! All the buildings in London became covered in thick sooty stuff . When we got home from school our clothes were all sooty and we had to have a new set every day. We used to get bad choking lung problems every winter . So that is the way it was !However – my dearest reader – in 1952 something very bad happened:It was very cold one morning and freezing below 0 degrees C . We got dressed for school and had hats, heavy coats, scarves and gloves. At about 8am we left home for the trip to school. Unknown to us a problem with the weather had caused the air to turn upside down or temperature “inversion” and instead of our FOG the filthy black and POISONOUS air from above the fog came down on London . Ten million people were covered in by a SMOG as it was to be called. Avril and I held hands but when we looked down we couldn’t see our hands, or our feet and if we held out the other arms we couldn’t see the end of them ! And it was so dark. But , being tough Londoners , we walked along following the concrete kerbs with our feet and trying to work out where we were at each intersection . We thought if we could follow Field End road we would eventually find the tube station.Problems came quickly. First we started to really freeze and our eyes were burning . We began to find it hard to breathe and were feeling really sick. We were hopelessly lost and there was dead silence around us there were no cars – nothing seemed to be existing in this dead world.We should not have tried to get to anywhere – but we did and now we were getting very scared. What if we were attacked by one of the very many nasty men that lived in London – we would not be able to run to a house for help and yelling for help would be no use.We found the station after about two hours and there were police and ambulance people there. Hundreds of choking people were being given gas masks left over from the war . This helped to stop the smog getting into their lungs. Some people were getting oxygen given to them through masks.We were there all day feeling very ill and uncomfortable.We didn’t realise how lucky we were . On the roads and pavements of London , over 1572 square kilometres of area, 872 schoolchildren died that day most of whom had asthma or lung infections.As the smog lifted we saw dead school children on trolleys being wheeled into the station – most were covered in white sheets – some were still dying.From our small school 34 children we were friends with had been killed.We could not take it in – we were in bad shock.This was one of he worst times of my life as a child. Most of those killed by the Great Smog were people who had pre-existing lung problems and were old. The death toll of the Great Smog of 1952 was shocking. Pollution, which many had thought was just a part of city life, had killed 12,000 people. It was time for change. It was the black smoke that had caused the most damage. Thus, in 1956 and 1968, Parliament passed two Clean Air Acts, which stopped completely the burning of coal in both people’s homes and in factories.English scientists invented “smokeless coal” which burned with hardly any smoke. London’s air was cleaned up. There were no more smogs.But the damage had been done.