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The Great Smog was a severe air pollution event that affected London, England, in December 1952.

A period of unusually cold weather, combined with an anticyclone and windless conditions, collected airborne pollutants—mostly arising from the use of coal—to form a thick layer of smog over the city. It lasted from Friday, 5 December to Tuesday, 9 December 1952, then dispersed quickly when the weather changed. The smog caused major disruption by reducing visibility and even penetrating indoor areas, far more severely than previous smog events, called "pea-soupers". Government medical reports in the weeks following the event estimated that up to 4,000 people had died as a direct result of the smog and 100,000 more were made ill by the smog's effects on the human respiratory tract. More recent research suggests that the total number of fatalities was considerably greater, with estimates of between 10,000 and 12,000 deaths. The diarist John Evelyn had written about "the inconveniencie of the aer and smoak of London " in Fumifugium, the first book written about air pollution, in 1661. However, the Great Smog was many times worse than anything the city had ever experienced before: it is thought to be the worst air pollution event in the history of the United Kingdom, and the most significant for its effects on environmental research, government regulation, and public awareness of the relationship between air quality and health.

A period of unusually cold weather preceding and during the Great Smog led Londoners to burn much more coal than usual to keep themselves warm. There were also numerous coal-fired electric power stations in the Greater London area, including Fulham, Battersea, Bankside, Greenwich, West Ham and Kingston upon Thames, all of which added to the pollution.

On 4 December 1952, an anticyclone settled over a windless London, causing a temperature inversion with relatively cool, stagnant air trapped under a layer of warmer air. The resultant fog, mixed with smoke from home and industrial chimneys, particulates such as those from motor vehicle exhausts, and other pollutants such as sulphur dioxide, formed a persistent smog, which blanketed the capital the following day. Although the event is now widely described as the "London" smog, air pollution, in fact, extended far beyond the capital. Wilkins (of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, whose measurements would make clear the connection between smoke, sulphur dioxide, and rising deaths), fog, white mist, or grimy smog covered "many parts of the British Isles", while "In London and the Thames Valley, fog or smog covered upwards of 1000 square miles".

In February 1953, Labour MP Marcus Lipton suggested in the House of Commons that the fog had caused 6,000 deaths and that 25,000 more people had claimed sickness benefits in London during that period. Most of the deaths were caused by respiratory tract infections, from hypoxia and as a result of mechanical obstruction of the air passages by catarrh and pus arising from lung infections caused by the smog.

Environmental legislation since 1952, such as the City of London (Various Powers) Act 1954 and the Clean Air Acts of 1956 and 1968, led to a reduction in air pollution.

Stevenson novel The Tall Stranger (1957) opens with a dense "fog" that penetrates indoors and endangers hospital patients, in an apparent reference to the 1952 smog event. The Great Smog is the central focus of season 1, episode 4 of Netflix's The Crown. The Great Smog is the setting of the Doctor Who audio play The Creeping Death and the novel Amorality Tale. The Boris Starling novel Visibility is set in the 1952 smog event. The video game Reverse: 1999 version 2.3 story "London Dawning" features a setting heavily inspired by the Great Smog, including characters who are inspired by it and having the smog as the main antagonist.

Quick Facts

• The smog caused major disruption by reducing visibility and even penetrating indoor areas, far more severely than previous smog events, called "pea-soupers".
• The video game Reverse: 1999 version 2.3 story "London Dawning" features a setting heavily inspired by the Great Smog, including characters who are inspired by it and having the smog as the main antagonist.
• Government medical reports in the weeks following the event estimated that up to 4,000 people had died as a direct result of the smog and 100,000 more were made ill by the smog's effects on the human respiratory tract.
• A period of unusually cold weather, combined with an anticyclone and windless conditions, collected airborne pollutants—mostly arising from the use of coal—to form a thick layer of smog over the city.
• Although the event is now widely described as the "London" smog, air pollution, in fact, extended far beyond the capital.

Source material: Wikipedia - "Great Smog of London". Adapted and summarized for DiscoverScroll. Original contributors are credited through the linked Wikipedia article. Read original on Wikipedia. CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes were made from the original.