Traffic in smog at night, 1956 50.82/1113a A crowd of people skate

A crowd of people skate and amuse themselves on the frozen Serpentine

full of striking primary colours

fur and agricultural produce

Notting Hill Gate reconstruction from the junction of Pembridge Road and Notting Hill Gate

The districts covered are Whitehall and St James

Traffic in smog at night, 1956 50.82/1113a A crowd of people skateTraffic in smog at night. Heavy smog was common in London in the 1950s and this photograph was taken only four years after the Great Smog of 1952, which claimed at least 8,000 lives, half of which in the immediate aftermath of the Smog. Following an investigation, Parliament passed the Clean Air Act of 1956, which marked London's move away from coal burning as the primary heating source to gas, oil and electricity.