foggy London
Pea-soup metropolis
Foggy London is a stock image of the city, evoking the thick smogs that plagued it through the coal-burning era—especially the deadly 1952 event that killed thousands.
The phrase conjures gas-lit streets, Sherlock Holmes, and Jack the Ripper.
Clean air laws have largely eliminated the phenomenon, but the atmospheric association persists in popular imagination.
- thick fogHeavy atmospheric moisture obscuring sight
- mistFine airborne moisture
- ThamesLondon's river
- VictorianOf a prim era
- DickensSurname of Victorian novelist
chimney sweep · smog · gaslight · cobblestones · horse-drawn carriage · drizzle · grey · Big Ben · chimney · overcast · damp · Sherlock · haze · bridges · murky · dark alley · chill · lamppost
- Victorian supernaturalghosts, seance, spiritualism, mediums, haunted house
- whodunitswhodunit, murder mystery, detective, sleuth, clue
- RipperologyJack the Ripper, Whitechapel, leather apron, Scotland Yard, police investigation