Sunday 1 May 2005, 15.00

Air currents, coal scuttles, chimney sweeps and thick, yellow fog … Here is a selection of short films based around the themes of air pollution and weather in mid twentieth-century industrial Britain – a time when the insidious alliance of pollution and weather was taking its toll on the environment. It culminated in the worst air pollution disaster on record – The Great Smog of 1952 that claimed the lives of around 4,000 Londoners and prompted a change in the way we relate to the air around us.

Weather Forecast 1934, 20’
Captures the hubbub of the Meteorological Office where gale warnings are drowned in the racketing of teleprinters.

Ocean Weather Ship 1949, 21’
Life on a North Atlantic weather ship as related through a letter from a crew member to his wife.

Mining Review 2nd Year No.5: A Dim View 1949, 2’
A cinemagazine newsflash urging people to use coal economically.

The Smoke Menace 1937, 14’
A look at the harmful effects of the tons of soot that fell on London each year.

Guilty Chimneys Associated British Pathé 1954, 22’
The case against chimneys – ending with a rhapsody on the beauties of a world without smoke.

Tate Britain  Auditorium
£3, booking recommended

    

This event is related to the Turner Whistler Monet exhibition