The London Pea Souper
Until the clean air act began to greatly improve the atmosphere in London, businesses and its domestic population largely had burned coal, rows of chimneys on every house all contributing to a mix with weather conditions to create a thick thick fog. This fog known as a London Particular or London Fog and its nick name as a pea souper.
The Great Smog of 1952 was probably the worst occurrence of the thick fog where a possible 4,000 additional deaths were reported in the city over a couple of days, leading to the passage of the Clean Air Act 1956 which banned the use of coal for domestic fires in urban areas. The overall death toll from that incident is now believed to be around 12,000.
