BOOTHY’S BLOG – Photo Snow Report LONDON Shocked By Snow

Londoners struggle without snow clearing infrastructure. No road clearing, no snow tires, few 4WDs means the city is at a standstill

20 December | Chris Booth

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a departing flight.

On my continuing unplanned vacation in London I have learnt that the English love talking about two things: closed airports and Warnie.

They love talking about these things so much that one could be lead to believe that there is nothing else going on anywhere. But while Warnie’s high profile escapades are fleeting at best, the airports have remained closed for several days. A wintery tempest of (almost) Shakesperian proportion has descended upon London, causing the city to grind to a screeching halt. Roads closed, airports closed, trains cancelled, even the underground (which is… underground) is delayed. The BBC and Sky News have aired images of hundreds of people sleeping under safety blankets at Gatwick and Heathrow airports over 2, 3 or even 4 nights. Qeues measuring in excess of a city block have been reported at London’s St Pancras train station while hopeful passengers wait in the -9 degree cold. This deprivation and misery has been a feast for the media meanwhile, with the phrases ‘third world’ and ‘refugee camp’ being thrown about like snowballs in Hyde Park.

What’s more, it hasn’t snowed in days. The casual bystander could be excused for wondering, then, what in the Queen’s good name is going on? Even London’s mayor Boris Johnson, who I suspect could be my father, was quoted as saying,

“It can’t be beyond the wit of man surely to . . . get the planes moving and to have more than one runway going.”

Indeed, the extraordinary disruption to infrastructure caused by a mere 12cm of snow challenges logic for a city set to host the next Olympics.

The problem is that Londoners are, at best, completely allergic to snow. In my 5 days here I have not seen a single road clearer, bulldozer, or a shovel for that matter. And as officials continue to squabble over whose responsibility it is to get things moving again, families wait in departure halls, train stations and airport hotels, hoping to make it to their destinations in time for Christmas.

There is consolation for some though, as children build snowmen and toboggan in the city’s many spectacular parks, now transformed into winter wonderlands.

The temps have been low at night – -5 or so

Edwardian architecture has gingerbread house appeal when the eaves catch the snow

Hampstead’s village atmosphere is fitting with the snow

Camden covered

cloud-covered London as we came into land

Winter wonderland in Hyde Park

The overloaded Tube has also been delayed by the snow

London is shivering in temperatures down to minus 8 degrees Celcius

London’s symbols removed from contex

London’s more expensive streets have cars that aren’t worth their weight in these conditions

Stay calm and carry on (inside)