2007-10-11-016_1_1 London Hyde Park Fog

2007-10-11-016_1_1 London Hyde Park Fog, originally uploaded by Martin-James.

I'm often asked about London's Fogs by people who live outside the British Isles. 'Peasoupers' or 'London Particulars", thick fogs described by Charles Dickens and Conan Doyle, used to occur frequently, and were due to pollution. These fhick fogs were also the origin of the colours exploited by Turner, Whistler, and Monet, in the paintings they made of London in the nineteenth Century. In December 1952 'The Great Smog of London' occurred, this was an exceptionally thick, polluted atmospheric fog that caused an estimated 4000 deaths. Following this a series of Clean Air acts were passed, these banned the use of coal in London and other cities. The result has been that fogs are now rare in London, we have only a few days of fog in a year, and it's very exceptional for it to last all day. We had some thick mist in Hyde Park at the beginning of October (it cleared soon after sunrise), however, I took some photos of the fog over the Serpentine.