London’s risk from rising temperatures

Very difficult to keep cool in the extreme heat in spite of all measures being taken to keep cool in London area. 1930's chalet type houses retain the heat. Many front gardens have been paved over and trees removed to enable parking where front gardens once were. This needs to be discouraged although understandable why dropped kerbs are requested.

More green space needed . TFL land in this area has been replaced with unattractive blocks of flats. Who wants to live on top of a traiin line. How can residents of these blocks keep cool? Must be so noisy with windows opened. Trees could have been planted to help stop pollution from nearby road and underground.

I commute to the City of London twice a week.  I deliberately leave extra early in the mornings (I start at 9am  but I leave my house at 6.45 am) to avoid the heat, traffic jams, and overcrowding on the trains.  The No.5 bus and EL2 bus are an absolute joke - these are the new routemaster buses, but there is only air conditioning on the top deck - the lower deck just have one side of the lower desk with tiny windows at the top and there is no air that comes through these windows, so they are absolutely pointless and there is no air conditioning on the lower deck.  It must be about 10 degrees higher on the bus than it is outside.  I dread going on either of these buses, but these are the only buses that go on my route home.  I guess it was Boris Johnson who recommended these buses at the time, but they really are not fit for purpose.  I pity pensioners who have to use these buses to get their shopping.

In my area over the last five years so much green space has been built on, many of these developments are unfinished or unsold but have the effect of reducing natural resources that help us cope with the heat. In private rented, furnished accommodation there is little we can do to our property that is effective to help cope with the heat so shady green space is invaluable

I’m in a new build flat, with door-to-ceiling windows that act as a greenhouse in a sunny day, and we’re not allowed to install outside units that would allow us to have air conditioning. This is absolutely ridiculous.

London can’t cope with climate change if preserving the aesthetic of a 10 year old building is more important than the comfort of its occupants.

I find the quality of air conditioning very good on buses, when passengers do not open the windows! Why do they do this? I come from a hot country where no one would dream of allowing the cool air to escape through open windows. The public need educating, perhaps via info stickers on bus windows. Get rid of the Covid ones. Other passengers look amazed & confused when I close the windows. So frustrating!

Also it should be against the law for shops to run air conditioning (or heating) with the front doors wide open. 

In places where we do have public air conditioning, why do we waste it?

 

Stay indoors between 11-4 if possible 

Drink plenty of fluids

Keep a wet towel or two in your fridge and wear it around your neck

We need more green spaces, and more trees, and people carrying for them.

we would love to add external shutters, but living in a conservation area means that most of the sensible measures we would take to mitigate against changing weather - shutters, solar panels, white roof, improved drainage - are blocked by the local council planning department

I have improved my home environment by adding external shading to one side of the house. The other side is visible from a conservation area and condemned to overheat until the local council realises that the world changes and so do views from windows.

We need a city-wide (nation-wide?) programme to incentivize the planting/retaining of trees and green spaces in front gardens, and disincentives to concrete and pave, especially with non-porous hardstanding. I've lived in my current street for 15 years and the trend continues apace for plants and trees to be replaced by concrete and paving. This makes the street hotter, reduces shade, worsens air quality and prevents water soaking into the ground, as well as generally making the place look and feel less attractive.

I have Multiple Sclerosis and I suffer greatly in this heat. There is no respite and nowhere I can go to cool down unless I start to feel really, really bad and that would be me having to go to A&E which I am trying to avoid. I truly can't understand why news and weather presenters keep saying in very gleeful voices how it is going to be hotter here than in the Bahamas or similar. As far as I am concerned this is a catastrophy and a very scary time for me. I live in a small council flat with no garden, no balcony and pretty bad windows = I don't even have windowsills. I'm trapped at home until the weather cools down. I also live on  avery polluted street - Red Route road - and it is pretty much unbearable at the moment. My husband has respiratory issues and the heat and pollution is very bad for himm too. Wish something would be done soonest, starting with getting rid of the outdated and useless Red Routes!

It is hot in London please help us.  

The thing that didn't come up enough as an option in the questionnaire (just once) was around the importance of natural shade and mature trees especially - trees take time to grow and we could do with so many more around during hot weather, especially lining our streets where we walk to keep cooler. Its crazy we have so many private vehicles parked, taking up space, when we could shift people to car-sharing instead (if done effectively would not result in people not being able to drive) and free up kerbside space for more trees - but we need to do this quickly for it to be effective as summers get hotter.

The mayor and councils have pollarded and cut down so many trees it’s useless to say authorities would help.They introduce electric buses which the passengers swelter in cos both the engine and batteries are within the bus.Bring back the old diesel route masters and leave the doors open.

The mayor and councils have built over any green spaces with concrete. They do not create any new vast green spaces.They have built so many stupid cycle lanes that all public transport is slowed down.

The mayor is a disgrace and he actually got knighted.

Things like air con are after the vent stuff - they use A LOT of energy... we need loads more mitigation before the event...

1. Reduce the amount of black asphalt - reduce the number of cars / parking spaces  - make it less easy to drive.  Replace asphalt with trees and SUDS

2. More shade from drought resistant trees - more seating / rest spaces in the shade - at frequent intervals to enable people to walk... with drinking water fountains at each one.

3. Over and above these two, then implement some of the things that were mentioned in the survey - but those are secondary to the above.

I'm lucky enough to live in a modern house with excellent ventilation and shutters on all windows/bifold doors, so it's easy to let in air when it's cool then close up the house during the hot part of the day, which makes a big difference. There are also a lot of trees in my area which provide excellent shade cover, and having easy access to green spaces with lots of trees - not just acres of grass - helps. I wish there were more open air swimming places though. The nearby Lido and Reservoir both get rammed on hot days

We definitely need some initiative similar to solar panels to get aircon units installed in houses. Landlords should be more responsible for their properties' temperatures, there should be penalties for those that exceed upper or lower safety limits 

Lots of people here advocating for trees and green space -- absolutely agree, these serve many overlapping purposes. Reducing the huge area of the city dedicated to cars (for some reason) would open up a lot of opportunity to set up mini-gardens etc.