"John Hall" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Peter Clarke writes:

"Keith (Southend)" wrote in message
...

I've recently read a couple of books written in the 1950s: "A Century of
London Weather" and CEP Brooks' "The English Climate". It's noticeable
how much space they devote to discussing fog, which then was a major
problem (and in urban areas a health hazard) in a way that it no longer
is.
--
John Hall

"Whenever people agree with me I always feel I must be wrong."
Oscar Wilde

Interesting to read all the comments about fogs in this thread, but the best
article about fog I have seen was in " Weather" magazine in March 1950 by
L.C. W. Bonacina. The item was titled ' London Fogs - Then and Now'.

Bonacina was born in 1882 and was certainly a weather enthusiast. In his
article , he writes he has ' lively memories of the 1890s and 1900s' and
says 'I should like to say something about the improvement ( in fogs) which
is certainly not appreciated by the younger meteorologists and others'. This
was written in 1950! I remember reading this and felt I had 'missed out' on
experiencing Victorian fogs.

He goes on to describe what it was like to be out in a Victorian ' London
Particular' which started out as yellow in the morning and became a dark
brown in colour by the afternoon. After dark there was chaos, hansom cabs
and other vehicles found themselves on the footways, a pedestrian ' could
easily spend the evening looking for his house round the corner, and when he
did get home would find the rooms half filled with the choking fog'.

As Ron Button has said ' those were the days'.

Peter Clarke

PS I met Mr Bonacina at several Met Soc meetings in the 1950s and 1960s, a
kindly man who told me some weather anecdotes from his youth.