Deadly London smog incident recalled on 60th anniversary Some 60
years ago, London was enveloped by an extraordinary fog, even by
that soupy city's standards. And it wasn't just fog, it was
smog, from coal furnaces and factories. It was also deadly,
killing as many as 4,000 people over a four-day period. Sixty
years ago this week was one of the deadliest episodes in the
history of London. On Dec. 5, 1952, an early-winter fog
descended on the British city, enveloping it for four days. It
was so thick that visibility was reduced to mere yards. Now it’s
true that London and fog are hardly strangers. Charles Dickens
put it well in Bleak House: “Fog everywhere. Fog up the river
where it flows among green airs and meadows; fog down the river,
where it rolls defiled among the tiers of shipping, and the
waterside pollutions of a great (and dirty) city.” But the
events of 1952 were far from ordinary. “The Great Smog of 1952
was the worst smog that London’s ever seen,” said Georgina
Young, senior curator of contemporar