London’s heatwave has drawn a hard line through the city. England recorded the hottest days in May in history this week, with temperatures in London reaching 35C and tropical nights keeping the heat above 20C after dark.
That matters now because the people feeling it most are not all in the same place. Some Londoners are moving through air-conditioned flats, trains and offices with little disruption, while others are trying to sleep in homes that never cool down. For them, the question is not whether the weather is hot. It is whether the night offers any relief at all.
Aykhan said the week was almost comfortable end to end. He travelled from his air-conditioned flat to the air-conditioned Elizabeth line and on to an air-conditioned office, and said his new bedroom stayed cool. “It’s a new flat, the air-con is great, my bedroom is cool,” he said. He added that attendance at work was higher this week because colleagues had air conditioning there too.
Asiyha’s experience was the opposite. She was sitting outside in Weavers Fields with her baby because her flat was too hot to stay in. “It is way too hot in my flat, that is why we are sitting outside,” she said. “My baby is struggling. We are in a very hot flat and we cannot sleep at night.” The heat inside homes is where the danger turns real, because health risks rise once indoor temperatures go above 25C.
That divide is not accidental. Last year, an analysis by the thinktank Resolution Foundation found that 48% of the poorest fifth of English households lived in homes liable to get too hot, compared with 17% of the richest fifth. The gap helps explain why the same weather can feel manageable in one part of London and punishing in another.
Will described one version of the city’s coping strategy from a very different address. He said he lives in an Edwardian house in north-west London with shutters on the windows, very high ceilings and a garden that helps keep it cool. “I don’t have air-con, but I live in an Edwardian house in north-west London which has shutters on the windows and very high ceilings, so it does stay cool. We also have a garden,” he said. Delano, meanwhile, was making do with an Argos fan at home and said the Elizabeth line was fine but the bus was unbearable in the heat.
Price is part of the same story. Fans, air-con units and other seasonal items have spiked in price during the heatwave, making the easiest fixes harder to afford for households already living in the hottest homes. A group of eight men in their early 20s said they could not afford air conditioning yet and were working in finance so that one day they could. Most had invested in a Dyson fan, a purchase that runs from £300 to £600.
The immediate question is not whether Britain gets more hot spells. It is how many Londoners are still trapped in homes that cannot cool down, and how much longer this one will last. For people like Asiyha, the answer will decide whether the city’s heat is an inconvenience or a night without sleep.
