A collection of true stories from those who have lived them
In 1952 an event that became known as the Great Smog of London began. Pollution from the coal fires and the power station fumes combined with the unusually cold temperature created a pocket of stagnant air through London. The cool stagnant air trapped under a warm layer creating a smog in some locations so thick you couldn't see your own hands in front of you.
Below are true stories from a lady who lived in the midst of London during this event.
"In London during the great smog, work closed early at 2pm, I tried to walk home but couldn’t see a single thing, didn’t know which road I was on or which way to turn.
I asked a man walking past if he knew where I was, he asked me ‘where do you need to go?’ I told him and he said ‘grab hold of my arm’. I realised in this moment he was a blind man, he walked me all the way to my road and said ‘straight down here and you’ll be on the road you need’. The smog was still too thick and I couldn’t see a thing, when he told me to walk I said ‘I can’t see if there’s any traffic!’ in reply he told me ‘well listen! Can you hear anything?’ I couldn’t hear anything so I walked.
I made it home because of him."
"You could sit on top of a double decker bus and you could look down on the thick layer of smog. It looked like the ocean, it covered everything, you couldn’t see a single thing beneath it. The ticket man would walk in front of the bus and the driver would follow going 2 miles per hour. When you finally got home you could roll the dust and dirt off of your skin"
"I remember being in the cinema during the smog. The cinema doors kept being opened and closed from people coming in, and each time the smog would creep through the door, eventually the whole cinema was so full of smog we could no longer see the screen and the cinema had to close."
A big thank you to the wonderful lady who allowed me to share these memories, and for those that took the time to read them. I hope you find her stories as interesting as I do. Please leave a comment if you enjoyed, and feel free to share your own stories of the London smog if you have any, I'm sure my client would love to read them.
I am so very lucky and honored to have so many memories shared with me.
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Much Love x
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