During the Victorian era London saw a massive increase in the amount of air pollution. This graph shows this increase in a unit called suspended particle matter or SPM. This measurement is represented in micrograms per cubic meter. During the Victorian era there was a drastic increase in the air polution, that later platoued and the started to slowly decrease in the back end of the Victorian era in the early 1900's. In the novel Bleak House by Charles Dickens he talks about the "fog" in London quite frequently, but I think it is interesting to look at how this problem, that is so prominent throughout the novel, is solved in modern times. In the London 1891 had the worst SPM on record with a massive total of 623.3766 micrograms/meter cubed, as of 2016 this number is down to 16. Through many government regualtions and environmentaly conscious decisions by businesses and people they were able to lower the pollution in London by over 97%.
Ritchie, Hannah. “What the History of London's Air Pollution Can Tell Us about the Future of Today's Growing Megacities.” Our World in Data, ourworldindata.org/london-air-pollution. Accessed 19 September 2020.