The Guardian from London, Greater London, England • 7

The Guardian Saturday November 30 2002 7 National news Memories of grime hard to scrub away Comment Jonathan Glancey 50 years after the great smog, a new killer viewed the morning with alarm The British Museum had lost its charm How long, I wondered, could this thing last? But the age of miracles hadn't passed, For, suddenly, I saw you there And throughfoggy London Town The sun was shining everywhere In Bleak House, Charles Dickens described peii-soupers as "London Chefs at Simpson's in the Strand cooked up a recipe for "London Particular pea while, in 1899, Monet painted the smog over the Thames; the colours were as entrancing as they were dangerous. Jack the Ripper used the smogs to murderous advantage. The smogs have long gone, although who knows if they may yet return? In Hollywood films, London remains a city of moody peasoupers. But, even if the British Museum is charming every day, and smoking chimneys are as rare as a graffiti-free tube train, London remains The Smoke. arises New York is the Big Apple, Paris the City of Light.

Manila is the Pearl of the Orient, Philadelphia the city of brotherly love. Venice is la serenissima. And, London? London is The Smoke. The images of the great smog of 1952 shaped our perceptions of the capital. Knob-btyrkneed school children, tied together with scarves, wound their crocodile way to and from assembly halls and homes that smelt of fry-ups, town gas and coal-dust.

Even after the Clean Air Act, London was prey to sulphurous fogs until the mid-60s. Many of its most distinctive monuments St Paul's, Westminster Abbey, St Pancras remained soot-encrusted for some years beyond. For aesthetes, these enjoyed a chiaroscuro beauty. Certainly, it was a shock when walls of white and cream stone and salmon-pink brick emerged from the grime. The peasouper had been part of London life for centuries.

It became the stuff of song and cinema: of Sherlock Holmes, of Boulting Brothers' comedies, and of Dixon of Dock Green. And, who could forget this song by George Gershwin? A foggy day in London Town Had me low and had me down A bus crawls along in the 1 952 smog and (right) Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes, who investigated many of his cases in a fog-bound London Attention focuses on car fames on anniversary of 1952 disaster mm ill progress without pollution control is no progress at all." But it took years of campaigning to get the Conservative government to accept reform. To cover up the true extent of the smog disaster the government invented an influenza epidemic. In fact, research has shown there was no epidemic and that the thousands more people who continued to die for the next four months did so because of the air pollution. The government's policies were at least partly to blame.

To maximise revenue Britain was exporting its clean coal and keeping the sulphur-laden "dirty" coal for its power stations and domestic fires. The result was a combination of soot-laden air and droplets of sulphuric acid lying in a 200ft-deep blanket across London, leading to the worst smog ever recorded. Devra Davis, honorary professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, in his book When Smoke Ran Like Water to be published on Thursday to coincide with the anniversary blames Harold Macmillan, then minister for housing, for suppressing the truth about dirty coal. A later claim by the Ministry of Health that 5,655 people had died of influenza in the first three months of 1953 was a fabrication to hide the smog deaths. The government calmed public fears by setting up a committee of inquiry.

It recommended the Clean Air Act, which became law in 1956, gradually bringing an end to open hearth coal fires. London and provincial cities continued to experience smog but they became less dangerous as people switched to central heating and Paul Brown Environment correspondent The great smog of 1952 was so thick people could not see their feet. Some of the 4,000 who died in the five days it lasted did not suffer lung problems they fell into the Thames and drowned because they could not see the river. The peasouper brought about the first successful air pollution laws anywhere. But campaigners say the battle is still not won and as many people may still die from air pollution as in the smog's worst days.

That great smog halted London. It stopped traffic and trains, the theatres and cinemas closed because the audience could not see the stage, prize cattle died at Smithfield show at Earls Court, and the undertakers ran out of coffins. There had been smogs before, in every major conurbation. But London was the world's biggest city at the time and nearly all of its 8 million inhabitants used open coal fires. The blanket of cold air from the continent which became stationary over the capital caused the warm, smoke-laden air from homes and power stations to cool and fall back to earth.

It created a blanket of sulphurous smog so dense that visibility was less than half a metre. Pollution had been seen as the price of progress, but the smog of 1952 woke the public to its terrible toll. The National Society for Clean Air says of the smog: "It marks the dividing line between the general acceptance of air pollution as a natural consequence of industrial development, and the understanding that Dark days vuauig 5 'V parts per per day 4o0o: 1000 'We have defeated one problem only to create another' But according to Mr Williamson, this is not the whole story. "There is emerging evidence that heart disease and cancers are caused by long-term exposure to air pollution," he said. "The calculations of how many people die prematurely, by a few days or weeks, may not be the half of it.

What about those that live for a long time with debilitating lung conditions and heart disease?" In 1950 there were 4m vehicles registered in Britain, half of them cars; now there are 28m vehicles, 85 of them cars. Coal provides only 15 of energy for home heating. "We have defeated one problem only to create another, and like the government of 1952 this one has yet to come to terms with the Williamson said. smokeless fuels, and by the mid-1960s they had disappeared. An international conference commemorating the anniversary is being held at London University next Saturday, not just to celebrate the end of smog but to look at the air pollution problems facing city dwellers.

Tim Williamson, policy officer of the National Society for Clean Air in Brighton, said the killer was no longer smoke from domestic fires but car fumes. Government estimates are that 24,000 people a year have their lives shortened as a result of air pollution. Robert Maynard from the Department of Health said inhabiting aTelatively polluted city for a prolonged period led to a shortening of life expectancy. 'smkfz-'x 1952 2 We do give you cashback as you spend on our VISA You don't need an engineer to install Boltblue broadband. We don't clobber you with bigger rates to make up for it Standard rate of 10.5 APR or 9.9 APR with a smile current account "0.5 cashback on purchases "Up to 46 days interest-free credit Transfer existing credit card balances to our great standard rate Happy wallet Standard typical variable rates Cards with cashback loyalty scheme APR smile 10.5r Abbey National Barclaycard 17.9 Egg 13.9 Goldfish 17.9 Halifax 18.9 Natwest 17.4 This is reduced to 9.9 APR lor smile current account customers.

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