December 1st

 

The yellow smog chokes

a city stained and belching

soul drained of colour

I’ve been writing about the great smog of 1952 in one of my many unfinished novels. My parents arrived in London in 1955 and although the smog was not as bad as 1952, which actually killed thousands of people through the oppressive pressure and poison it contained, they were still thick and ugly times. The clean air act of 1956 helped to eradicate those monstrous fogs.

I remember my mum and dad saying one of their neighbours, who also had come over from rural Cyprus to live in the Pentonville area, near Kings Cross, was so terrified by the fog, he thought London was ablaze. Which was understandable, as he didn’t comprehend and hadn’t ever witnessed a fog like it before.

August 18th

slender chimney stacks

gothic fume blackened brickthroats

parched in the star blaze

It was too hot to get the train, so me and D walked back from Arsenal to St Pancras, down the Caledonian Road, towards Pentonville. This was the area my parents first lived in when they came to England.

It was a relief when we finally saw the myriad chimneys of St Pancras station over the rooftops. What a building. So glad it’s still there, such a landmark, so beautiful.