Fumifugium, or, The inconveniencie of the aer and smoak of London dissipated : together with some remedies humbly proposed by John Evelyn. Printed in London by W. Godbid, 1661. 

Lower Library, item no. 5 in volume K.23.23

It is a common misconception that London’s air pollution is a byproduct of the Industrial Revolution alone. As early as 1659 John Evelyn, a famous diarist, humanist, bibliophile and gardener, wrote about the terrible conditions of London’s air in his satirical book “A character of England”. Here the city was described as engulfed in “such a cloud of sea-coal, as if there be a resemblance of hell upon earth”. ¹

Evelyn spent most of the Commonwealth period travelling through Europe, studying botany and architecture and corresponding with many of his scholarly contemporaries. After the Restoration he presented “Fumifugium” to King Charles II, who seemed to listen to Evelyn’s worries for public health and even asked him to prepare a bill to place before Parliament (which was unfortunately dropped by 1662).²

This pamphlet is considered to be the first English book on pollution.³ In it Evelyn explains how the human body needs clean “aer” to survive, so that it “clarifies the blood, […] cheering the spirits and promoting digestion”.⁴ London air is then described as a “hellish and dismal cloud of sea-coalby “a thousand inconveniences, corrupting the lungs […] so that catharrs, phthisicks, coughs and comsumptions rage more in this one city than in the whole Earth besides”.⁵

Air pollution did not affect just human bodies, but also the city itself. 

“It is this horrid smoake which obscures our churches, and makes our palaces look old, which fouls our clothe[s], and corrupts the waters, so as the very rain […] precipitate[s] this impure vapour, which, with its black and tenacious quality, spots and contaminates whatsoever is expos’d to it.”⁶

Evelyn’s remedies to fight pollution are simple, but costly. His first suggestion is to stop using coal and revert to burning wood, possibly using the infinite reserves of the New World; then moving all the “works” 5-6 miles outside of London (he refers to brewers, dyers, soap boilers and any other trade known for working with chemicals); finally to create a series of fields, east and south-west of the city, of about 40 acres each and separated by fences which should bear shrubs and “the most fragrant and odoriferous flowers”.⁷ Evelyn proposes Rosemary, as an example, which he claims to have a scent so strong that it can be smelled thirty leagues off the coast of Spain.

With this book Evelyn announced his commitment to the improvement of public life in England and in the next few years he joined several committees; he was commissioner for the improvement of the city streets and a member of the group that founded the Royal Society.⁸ Despite never holding any important political office he worked in many useful posts trying to bring forward his idea of a new continental-style City of London.

Evelyn applied his interest in botany and garden history to transform Sayes Court, a 200- acre estate in Deptford, into one of the most influential gardens in England. Now only a small community garden in Evelyn’s name remains of it.