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| July 1907: St Pancras Railway Station. (Topical Press Agency / Getty Images) |
The cold weather preceding and during the smog meant that Londoners were
burning more coal than usual to keep warm. Post-war domestic coal
tended to be of a relatively low-grade, sulfurous variety (economic
necessity meant that better-quality “hard” coals tended to be exported),
which increased the amount of sulfur dioxide in the smoke. There were
also numerous coal-fired power stations in the Greater London area,
including Fulham, Battersea, Bankside, and Kingston upon Thames, all of
which added to the pollution.
