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FROM BATTERSEA TO THE CLEAN AIR ACTS

FROM BATTERSEA TO THE CLEAN AIR ACTS. Wolverhampton. TRANSITION TO ELECTRIC POWER LOCAL INDUSTRY. Barton A 1923 (Manchester Corporation). Electric Lighting Act 1888/1909 Reduced restrictions and LAs as generators Electricity (Supply) Act 1926 National grid

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FROM BATTERSEA TO THE CLEAN AIR ACTS

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  1. FROM BATTERSEATO THE CLEAN AIR ACTS

  2. Wolverhampton TRANSITION TO ELECTRIC POWER LOCAL INDUSTRY

  3. Barton A 1923 (Manchester Corporation) • Electric Lighting Act 1888/1909 Reduced restrictions and LAs as generators • Electricity (Supply) Act 1926 National grid • Barton A “scorching hedges and fruit trees”

  4. Barton A 1923 (Manchester Corporation) • Manchester Corporation Electricity generation gave smoke but their duties arose under the Man. Corp. Act 1914 • House of Lords (1929/1930) Overturned decision: cannot rely on statutory powers to excuse a nuisance • Shock! A decision of great moment

  5. BATTERSEA A • London Power Company used 1926 Act • Consent given in 1927 • Shock!

  6. POLLUTION WORRY FROM OUTSET • Could attach conditions (1927) • Chimney heights • Gas washing • Not practical to revoke consent “This will kill every green thing within two miles of Battersea, rot all the buildings and bleach all the babies.” G. Fry Prime Minister’s personal secretary

  7. FAILURE TO FORSEE A DEPLORABLE STEP SULPHUR CLOUD BUILDING IN SPITE OF PROTEST SUNLIGHT AND SMOKE OUTPOURINGS OF GREAT CHIMNEYS BATTERSEA’S FOLLY ALARM THE SITE GAS WASHING FUMES MENACE NOXIOUS GAS FUME STATION HEADLINES 1929

  8. “BUILDING IN SPITE OF PROTEST” • Steel-framed building with brickwork hung from the outside, similar to US skyscrapers • Construction 1929-1939 • Station B 1953-55 • Four-chimney layout

  9. HEADLINES 1934 • POWER • SMOKE WITHOUT FUMES • A RIVERSIDE NOCTURNE • BIGGEST POWER STATION IN THE WORLD • THE GIANT ROBOT OF BATTERSEA • POWER • INDUSTRY’S SMOKE BECOMES BEAUTIFUL

  10. OVERCOMING PROTEST “the building was too large and would be an eyesore, and those who were worried about the pollution. Ignoring the latter, the company addressed the former by hiring Sir Giles Gilbert Scott” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia

  11. COMPLAINTS GRAPH PLANNING STAGE CONSTRCTION AND SMOKE ABATEMENT STUDIES CLOSURE WW2

  12. WARTIME a clear landmark for the bombers of the Luftwaffe

  13. Art Deco control room Italian marble turbine hall Polished parquet floors Wrought iron staircases Fluted white smoke stacks Turbine Hall as nave TEMPLE OF POWER Architects Journal 1939 celebrities vote it their 2nd favourite building

  14. PHOTOGRAPHIC COMPETITION

  15. SYMBOL OF PRIDE and MODERNTY BIGGEST POWER STATION IN THE WORLD THE GIANT ROBOT OF BATTERSEA

  16. STATION B 1953-55 • 1952 fog • Scrubbing success/failure

  17. PAINTED

  18. PHOTOGRAPHED

  19. ICONIC STATUS Pink Floyd Animals 1977 Songbook Album cover

  20. The Who Quadrophenia (1973) Hitomi Yaida The First Reflection(2001) Also: The Orb's Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld and Les Claypool's Frog Brigade's Live Frogs

  21. ICONIC STATUS Sir Ian McKellen 1995 film version of Richard III used the Battersea PS as a backdrop …also Alfred Hitchcock Sabotage (1936) Monty Python's The Meaning Of Life

  22. CLOSURE • 1975 Station A (out of date) was shut down • Public pressure to save the buildings, notably Station A's Deco interior. • 1980 declared a heritage site • 1983 production in Station B ended • Plans to construct a theme park in 1988 folded

  23. SYMBOL OF COMMUNITY

  24. DECOMMISIONING AND DESTRUCTION Battersea Power Station has been standing mute defying that fate and death… its rebirth and the removal of a major central London area of blight … would re-energise this part of town

  25. MORE PLANS (2004) • 24-hour destination- cinema, bars, cafes and shops • 750 new flats • twisted like ribbon building to create a "spectacular portal to the site"

  26. IRONY • Inversion of protest • The grid and relocation • The loss of urban power-stations

  27. g m-3 December air pollution at County Hall THE IMPORTANCE OF THE LONDON SMOG OF 1952

  28. WEEKLY DEATH RATE IN LONDON ADMINISTRATIVE COUNTY 1952 SMOG WEEK

  29. Classically related to sulfuric acid formation MECHANISMS OF FOG FORMATION HSO3- + ½O2  SO4=+H+ catalysed by dissolved iron neutralised by calcium New work considers humic like polycarboxylic acids hygroscopic surface active Yousef Otaibi Talib Latif UEA

  30. Cancelled buses, football Animals suffering Lost on the way home GREAT SMOG and PUBLIC IMAGES

  31. CRIMINALS IN THE ’52 SMOG Newspapers incorrectly reported increased crime… Tiger in the Smoke (1952) Lady in the Fog (1952)

  32. KRAY BROTHERS Grateful for the fogs spent the early 1950's dodging the Army Normally crime increased in fogs, … but in 1952 the Great Smog rendered London virtually crime free David Bailey

  33. OUTCOME as everyone knows... • Beaver Committee • Private Member’s Bill (Nabarro) • Clean Air Act (1956) • How many died? • What was the role of SO2? but...

  34. FACTS-FACTIONS-FICTIONS Conspiracy and cover up- driven by fading social memory? • MacMillan (Housing) • Gasmasks • Mass Graves • Delayed response

  35. Contemporary analysis was fairly immediate…but Influenza and longer term impacts CONCEALING THE DEATHS

  36. FACTS-FACTIONS-FICTIONS Re-analysis… can be problematical • Deaths • Battersea

  37. CLEAN AIR ACT (1956) SUCCESS OR FAILURE • Need historic measurements

  38. EARLY MEASUREMENTS

  39. LONDON FOG and AIR POLLUTION Day/annum g m-3 400 200

  40. INNOVATION and IMAGINATION • What was wrong with the smoke clauses of the Public Health Act (1936 )? • Challenges personal freedom by controlling what people could burn in their own homes "chimney of any building..."

  41. STRUCTURE OF THE ACT • Many clauses • PHA (1936) 6 • CAA (1956) > 40 • Detail in memoranda • chimney heights • smoke control areas • industrial premises Compare with EC/96/62 Air Quality Monitoring and Management Directive

  42. DOUBTS • Not enough smokeless fuel...

  43. Domestic transitions Smokeless fuels Slow uptake of smokeless zones in some areas Failure to address SO2 Declining smoke and SO2 – even outside smokeless zones CLEAN AIR ACT (1956) SUCCESS OR FAILURE

  44. IMPACT OF CAA(1956) • Regulated smoke not SO2 • Applied in “Black” areas • Implementaton often delayed

  45. CAA(1956) AFFECTS OUR CONCEPT OF ENVIRONMENT • Bonfires in gardens • Regulation of indoor spaces and furnishings • Personal freedom and the automobile • congestion charges • “public transport will never cope…” • buses make pollution worse • school runs - less than one in 10 parents believe public transport can get their children to school

  46. CHANGE IN LONDON • The world and London has changed – PM, winter NO2, summer ozone • CAA(1956) incorporated into CAA(1993) • Iconic status

  47. THE BIG SMOKE AND LONDON I desired to know what brought him so far from the big smoke The Cruise of the Cachalot Cleaning up the Big Smoke: Livingstone plans to cut carbon emissions by 60% · Londoners given 20-year target to go green· Flights could drastically affect success of campaign The Guardian, February 27 2007

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