The Conversion of Central London

The task of converting London might well have daunted even St Augustine. Central London was both the critical area for North Thames and the linchpin of the national effort. Many, some even within the industry, felt that such an undertaking was impracticable. For almost every conversion problem was magnified in the capital. The operation affected a wide section of opinion-formers and influential individuals, including nearly every Member of Parliament. It involved such institutions as Buckingham Palace, foreign embassies, Fleet Street, the Bank of England, Westminster Abbey and Parliament itself. Public attention was inevitable. The density of London’s population and the existence of so many underground mains and pipes of all kinds made sectorising and valving a particularly intricate technical operation. The numbers of flats and bed-sitters in certain areas, such as Kensington and Earls Court, often made access on ‘C Day’ a nightmare, while the itinerant nature of much of London’s population made the information gathered by the survey representatives quickly out of date. Moreover, pre-survey of appliances discovered an unusually high proportion of potentially dangerous (PD) installations. Most arose from inadequate ventilation and each case had to be checked and dealt with. Again, London had the nation’s greatest concentration of ‘commercial’ consumers and the special needs of restaurants, hospitals, shops, and so on had all to be met and satisfied on a scale unmatched elsewhere.