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I remember some bad ones in the sixties, even getting lost on the way home from school because you could not see your hand in front of your face. The roads used to be eerily quiet with only the buses crawling along at walking pace.
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I remember bad ones in the 60's and they were bad sure enough, however they were nothing like the bad ones in the 50's in London. My Grandparents tell me stories of having to feel walls to walk around, oil drums with fires burning in them to show the corners of roads, traffic actually coming to a halt, and parts of the tube shut because the smog was sucked in by tube trains!
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I was bjorn in London in 1952 ... cough splutter wheeeeeeeeze!
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I was a school kid in London in the 50s, I have seen smog like that, and worse.
I would like to see what the H&S Taliban would make of that.
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...however they were nothing like the bad ones in the 50's in London...
A late uncle of mine told me a smog story from when he commuted on a motorcycle combination from the Embankment in central London to Rayleigh in Essex.
On the way home one evening he got lost in a real pea-souper on Hackney Marshes.
He stopped to look for a signpost and made the mistake of dismounting and wandering away from the combination to do so.
He told me: "I found a signpost, but when I turned to walk back I could no longer see the combination."
Fortunately, he'd left the engine running and was able to find it by sound.
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My grandma used to tell us stories of the 50's smog. How true they were, I can't tell, but in one story grandad followed a tram into the depot because he was just following the lights in front, and in another he accidentally drove into a field through an open gate, got out of the car to find the gate and then couldn't find the car.
Would modern lighting technology have helped, I wonder?
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The Great Smog of 1952, which killed thousands, led to the Clean Air Act of 1956 a major step forward in public health legislation
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I remember smogs that were so bad that when walking along the pavement you couldn't see street lights until you were about 3 feet away from them.
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My grandparents moved out of Fulham to the then rural idyll of Windsor in order to escape the smogs, which would have ended up killing my Dad's younger brother who was a chronic asthmatic.
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I used to live on the Finchley Road, near what was the Blue Star Garage at the top of the Hendon Way. What I remember about the 1952 smog is not so much the lack of visibility but the smell. The air was a murky brown/tan colour but the smell was like a coal fire with a blocked chimney or like being in KX station with all the engines smoking away. Of course, I guess that is what it was - thousands and thousands of coal fires plus an inversion to keep the smoke packed down in the lower layers of the atmosphere.
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- - -> P.Penguin, I was having a gander at your profile and I see you are a retired military pilot,
you also say that you avoid flying whenever possible - is there something we need to know?
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Good website that Retronaught...
www.howtobearetronaut.com/2010/02/carnaby-street-1968-in-colour/
I was looking at the images wondering if AC might be hanging about somewhere??
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>>Good website that Retronaught...<<
That takes me back! - I used to work in Beak St. which is just orf Carnaby St, man.
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...which is just orf Carnaby St, man...
When I first visited Carnaby Street in the mid 1970s it still had the multi-coloured road and pavement surface.
It was bit worn and grubby by this time - must have looked good when it was laid.
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>>When I first visited Carnaby Street in the mid 1970s it still had the multi-coloured road and pavement surface<<
Well, it was all multi-coloured in those days (psychedelic!) inc. me :-D
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Dog, I find that I have had something to do with the training of some of the pilots who cart me round the place so they don't worry me! My objection is the 2 to 3 hour check-ins at silly times of day, stupid things about liquids, taking off belts and shoes, luggage weighed to the nearest 4 oz and intruisive interrogations, sometimes, at security. Example - "How much money are you taking abroad - is it yours?" etc. Lost luggage at both ends of one's journey. A 30 minute queue at Border Control at 22.30 at night to be let back into your own country by someone wearing a turban. Is there no end to the joy of flying?
Compare and contrast the hassle free experience of taking one's car thru the Tunnel from Folkestone! I have been from check-in kiosk to holding area in under 10 minutes, boarding in 10 more and in Calais within an hour, total elapsed time. Eurostar and Eurotunnel will be the death of some short haul flying within 10 years, I think!
Last edited by: Perky Penguin on Mon 11 Apr 11 at 14:10
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>> A 30 minute queue at Border Control at 22.30 at night to be let back into your own
>> country by someone wearing a turban. Is there no end to the joy of flying?
>>
We have a similar opinion of flying.
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>> Is there no end to the joy of flying?<<
Yes! - I'm with you there PP, I haven't 'flown' since we came back from Tenerife in the mid 90's, and don't intend to either, I 'flew' for the first time at age 37 with British Caledonian and always enjoyed flying (once we were on-board)
I honestly don't know how people do these long haul flights though, but saying that - my wife flew to Tokyo in the 80's, but that was 1st class 747 with Virgin :)
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>> Dog, I find that I have had something to do with the training of some
>> of the pilots who cart me round the place so they don't worry me! My
>> objection is the 2 to 3 hour check-ins at silly times of day, stupid things
>> about liquids, taking off belts and shoes, luggage weighed to the nearest 4 oz and
>> intruisive interrogations, sometimes, at security. Example - "How much money are you taking abroad -
>> is it yours?" etc. Lost luggage at both ends of one's journey. A 30 minute
>> queue at Border Control at 22.30 at night to be let back into your own
>> country by someone wearing a turban. Is there no end to the joy of flying?
Flew to Gib recently as you know.
Checked in on-line before I went, hand luggage only, all stuff prepared for security in side pockets. Was through security and on board the plane taxiing 1 hour after entering the airport.
Flew back from Gib, again checked in on line, was in the air 45 mins after leaving the hotel and that included 5 mins in the duty free shop. Was in my car leaving the long term car park 50 minutes after landing at Gatwick having no checked baggage and using the E-Passport booths
If you know what you are doing, pack and prepare for the security checks, and check in on-line it need not be a load of hastle.
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I can manage on line check-in and seat selection but your hand luggage for 4 days would be my lady's spongebag! Hand luggage only is not an option and we can't do the IRIS scan passport stuff but I do understand what is possible!
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Driving in Smog, 1952 - Robin O'Reliant
