History Main / AFoggyDayInLondonTown

-->--"A Foggy Day in London Town" by '''Music/GeorgeGershwin'''

-> ''London is a city of a hundred thousand smokes. Tonight, those smokes tangle like tarry ropes around your neck, your feet, in malevolent yellow-green coils.''
---> FlavorText, FallenLondon.

* ''[[TheGoonShow The Case Of The Mukkinese Battle Horn]]'' opens with the screen filled with impenetrable London fog. But the narrator cheerfully points out that even in the thickest of fogs, there are some landmarks [[YouCantMissIt you just can't miss]]. Like Nelson's column, for example. ''*sound of car crashing*'' "You see? There's someone not missing it now!"

* "A Foggy Day (In London Town)" is a 1937 composition by Music/GeorgeGershwin, introduced by Fred Astaire in the film ''Film/ADamselInDistress'' and the TropeNamer. Music/FrankSinatra covered it on his album ''Music/SongsForYoungLovers''.

* ''ComicBook/SpiderMan''. Knight and Fogg were two British super-powered contract killers who appeared in ''The Spectacular Spider-Man'' #165-167 back in 1990. The latter saw himself as the personification of the London fog and could transform his body into a gaseous form that obscured his opponents' sight; his favorite method of attack was to strangle his targets from afar with his partially solidified hands.

TruthInTelevision for many decades. London fog was often so thick it was nicknamed ''pea soup'', because of the greenish tinge. If you could see 10 feet in front of you in those days you were lucky; there are even reports of people falling into the Thames as a result, and sometimes the air and smell was so bad that people wore mouth masks. As you might expect, this wasn't really true "fog" (which, as [[Creator/EddieIzzard an Englishman in San Francisco]] once commented, while it can ''move'' quickly, but is rarely actually ''that'' bad for visibility or smell), but rather a product of both fog and air pollution--that is to say, smog (="smoke"+"fog"). London, lying as it does in an estuary, is rather humid and susceptible to actual fog, but the real concern comes when the smoke from all the coal fires in London up until the middle of the 20th century mixes with the fog, you get a new substance that you can't see through and smells vile. Domestic coal fires were the major contributory factor; Londoners had burned coal to heat their homes and businesses since at least the 17th century (there are plenty of reports from that time of how horrid the London air is from all the smoke), but the problem got especially bad after WorldWarTwo, when all the good quality coal was being sold for export to try and pay off the war debt, leaving Britons to burn the low quality, sulphurous coal sold cheaply onto the domestic market. Another reason for the fog's existence were the factory smokes, which provided an awful smell too. The toxicity of this fog only came to light in 1952, when 4,000 people inhaled the fumes, got sick afterwards and died as a result. From that moment on the British government ordered restrictions to be made in the ''Clean Air Act 1956'', so that the amount of factory fog would be drastically reduced. (See also here for more info:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pea_soup_fog ) It took some time for this to fully take hold; another "Great Smog" came along in 1957 (nowhere near as bad as 1952, but still horrible).

TruthInTelevision for many decades. London fog was often so thick it was nicknamed ''pea soup'', because of the greenish tinge. If you could see 10 feet in front of you in those days you were lucky. They are even reports of people falling into the Thames as a result and sometimes the air and smell was so bad that people wore mouth masks. But natural mist wasn't the only reason for its existence. Domestic coal fires were the major contributory factor. Especially after WorldWarTwo, when all the good quality coal was being sold for export to try and pay off the war debt, that left Britons burning the low quality, sulphurous, coal that was sold cheaply onto the domestic market. Another reason for the fog's existence, or ''smog'' in this case were the factory smokes, which provided an awful smell too. The toxicity of this fog only came to light in 1952, when 4,000 people inhaled the fumes, got sick afterwards and died as a result. From that moment on the British government ordered restrictions to be made in the ''Clean Air Act 1956'', so that the amount of factory fog would be drastically reduced. (See also here for more info:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pea_soup_fog )

* The Great Stink in ''Literature/TheDifferenceEngine'' due to the profusion of SteamPunk industry. [[RedScare Thanks to the politics of the time]] it gets blamed on an anarchist group that tried taking over during the crisis.

* The Great Stink in ''Literature/TheDifferenceEngine'' thanks to the profusion of SteamPunk industry. Though thanks to the politics of the time it gets blamed on an anarchist group that tried taking over at the time.

*

* ''Series/GetSmart'': London is depicted with fog so thick in the "That Old Gang of Mine" episode that Max and 99 can barely see where they are going. At one point, they meet someone in what appears to be a foggy backstreet but it turns out to be a ''hotel room.''

* In ''VideoGame/FallenLondon'', the weather changes every now and then, but it is very often foggy. Which is impressive, because in this universe, London is underneath the earth. On the rare occasions that the fog lifts, "{{FlavorText For a moment it seems like London never fell.}}"

* "A Foggy Day (In London Town)" is a 1937 composition by Music/GeorgeGershwin, introduced by Fred Astaire in the film ''Film/ADamselInDistress'' and the TropeNamer.

* In the ''Series/AreYouBeingServed''? episode "The Bliss Girl," the fog has entered the building, and into the elevator.

-->''Once upon a time--of all the good days in the year, on Christmas Eve--old Scrooge sat busy in his counting-house. It was cold, bleak, biting weather: foggy withal: and he could hear the people in the court outside, go wheezing up and down, beating their hands upon their breasts, and stamping their feet upon the pavement stones to warm them. The city clocks had only just gone three, but it was quite dark already--it had not been light all day--and candles were flaring in the windows of the neighbouring offices, like ruddy smears upon the palpable brown air. The fog came pouring in at every chink and keyhole, and was so dense without, that although the court was of the narrowest, the houses opposite were mere phantoms. To see the dingy cloud come drooping down, obscuring everything, one might have thought that Nature lived hard by, and was brewing on a large scale.''

-->''The yard was so dark that even Scrooge, who knew its every stone, was fain to grope with his hands. The fog and frost so hung about the black old gateway of the house, that it seemed as if the Genius of the Weather sat in mournful meditation on the threshold.''

-->''Running to the window, he opened it, and put out his head. No fog, no mist; clear, bright, jovial, stirring, cold; cold, piping for the blood to dance to; Golden sunlight; Heavenly sky; sweet fresh air; merry bells. Oh, glorious! Glorious!''

* ''ComicBook/SpiderMan''. Knight and Fogg were two British super-powered contract killers who appeared in ''The Spectacular Spider-Man'' #165-167 back in 1990. The latter could transform his body into a gaseous form that obscured his opponents' sight; his favorite method of attack was to strangle his targets from afar with his partially solidified hands.

* In one series of episodes of Series/{{Batman}} ("The Londinium Larcenies"/"The Foggiest Notion"/"The Bloody Tower"), Batman and Robin travel to Londinium (the Bat-universe's analog to London; actually the Roman name for London) to battle Lord Marmaduke Ffogg and Lady Penelope Peasoup. Not only is Londinium depicted as very foggy much of the time, but Ffogg's weapons are also all fog-based.

* ''ComicBook/SpiderMan''. Knight and Fogg were two British super-powered contract killers who appeared in ''The Spectacular Spider-Man #165-167'' back in 1990. The latter could transform his body into a gaseous form that obscured his opponents' sight; his favorite method of attack was to strangle his targets from afar with his partially solidified hands.

* In ''VideoGame/FallenLondon'', the weather changes every now and then, but it is very often foggy. Which is impressive, because in this universe, London is underneath the earth.

* ''Film/PandorasBox'' ends with Lulu meeting JackTheRipper on the OminousFog-bound streets of London.

* ''Literature/BleakHouse''. When Esther arrives in London she ask a passer by what this dense brown smoke might be and thinks it is a great fire. ''O, dear no, miss,' he said. 'This is a London particular.' I had never heard of such a thing. 'A fog, miss,' said the young gentleman."''
* It is even mentioned all throughout ''Literature/AChristmasCarol'', at the start of the story, for instance: ''Once upon a time—of all the good days in the year, on Christmas Eve—old Scrooge sat busy in his counting-house. It was cold, bleak, biting weather: foggy withal: and he could hear the people in the court outside, go wheezing up and down, beating their hands upon their breasts, and stamping their feet upon the pavement stones to warm them. The city clocks had only just gone three, but it was quite dark already—it had not been light all day—and candles were flaring in the windows of the neighbouring offices, like ruddy smears upon the palpable brown air. The fog came pouring in at every chink and keyhole, and was so dense without, that although the court was of the narrowest, the houses opposite were mere phantoms. To see the dingy cloud come drooping down, obscuring everything, one might have thought that Nature lived hard by, and was brewing on a large scale''. Later when Scrooge returns to his home at night, where he will be visited by the ghost of Jacob Marley: ''The yard was so dark that even Scrooge, who knew its every stone, was fain to grope with his hands. The fog and frost so hung about the black old gateway of the house, that it seemed as if the Genius of the Weather sat in mournful meditation on the threshold''. And later, near the end, during the famous moment when Scrooge awakens and feels like a new man and opens the window: ''Running to the window, he opened it, and put out his head. No fog, no mist; clear, bright, jovial, stirring, cold; cold, piping for the blood to dance to; Golden sunlight; Heavenly sky; sweet fresh air; merry bells. Oh, glorious! Glorious!''

* ''Literature/TheLittlePrincess''. ''..the yellow fog hung so thick and heavy in the streets of London that the lamps were lighted"''

->''" A foggy day in London Town\\

The sun was shining everywhere.\\
--> "A Foggy Day in London Town" by '''Music/GeorgeGershwin'''

--> A foggy day in London Town
--> Had me low and had me down
--> I viewed the morning with alarm
--> The British Museum had lost its charm
--> How long, I wondered, could this thing last?
--> But the age of miracles hadn't passed,
--> For, suddenly, I saw you there
--> And through foggy London Town
--> The sun was shining everywhere.
--> "A Foggy Day in London Town" - Music/GeorgeGershwin

From the second half of the 19th century until well around the 1950s England and especially London were associated with foggy, damp environments where nobody could see anything in the mist, except shadowy figures. This OminousFog and MysteriousMist made it ideal for setting in which detectives are solving murder mysteries in near darkness.

!Examples

* In ''Film/TheCannonballRun'', Seymour Goldfarb (Roger Moore) says this when his car starts filling up with smoke after using the smoke screen to get the pursuing police cars off his tail.