Travelling from his air-conditioned flat to the air-conditioned Elizabeth line to his air-conditioned office, 27-year-old banker Aykhan found this week\u2019s heatwave a breeze.<\/p>\n
Smiling while grabbing lunch in the shopping centre under the gleaming One Canada Square skyscraper in Canary Wharf, he said he\u2019d been sleeping very well over the last few days. \u201cIt\u2019s a new flat, the air-con is great, my bedroom is cool.\u201d<\/p>\n
He hadn\u2019t been affected by the heatwave, but said: \u201cI think my colleagues have. We have higher attendance in the office this week because it has AC.\u201d<\/p>\n
One Elizabeth line stop away in Whitechapel, one of the most deprived areas in the UK, Asiyha, 26, was having a very different experience. Sitting under a tree in Weavers Fields, she tried to sooth her baby, who is not yet one.<\/p>\n
Commuters are warned about the hot weather outside the Canary Wharf station in London. Photograph: Suzanne Plunkett\/Reuters<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is way too hot in my flat, that is why we are sitting outside,\u201d she said. \u201cI live right nearby. My baby is struggling. We are in a very hot flat and we cannot sleep at night.\u201d<\/p>\n
England recorded the hottest days in May in history this week,<\/a> with London temperatures reaching 35C. There have been consecutive \u201ctropical nights\u201d, where theheat does not dip below 20C, making it hard for those without air-con to sleep. Some homes, many of those in poorer areas and not built for extreme heat, have become furnaces.<\/p>\n Health risks spike when indoor temperatures are above 25C, and there is a link between overheating in homes and the risk of death<\/a>, particularly for older people. Last year, an analysis <\/a>of housing stock by the thinktank Resolution Foundation found nearly half (48%) of the poorest fifth of English households have homes liable to get too hot \u2013 three times as many as among the richest fifth (17%).<\/p>\n The steely skyscrapers of Canary Wharf dazzled in the bright sunshine on Thursday lunchtime. Underground, there is a warren-like shopping centre, which is air-conditioned and full of people in suits scurrying around to pick up lunch to eat at their desks.<\/p>\n Will, 37, who works for one of the UK\u2019s largest banks, was waiting for a sandwich. \u201cDress codes have relaxed in recent years, so I am wearing a linen shirt and no jacket,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t have air-con, but I live in an Edwardian house in north-west London<\/a> which has shutters on the windows and very high ceilings, so it does stay cool. We also have a garden.\u201d<\/p>\n A fan for sale on Whitechapel high street, one of the most deprived areas in the UK. Photograph: Martin Godwin\/The Guardian<\/p>\n Serving up lunch in the blood-red upholstered Boisdale restaurant, 21-year-old Delano said he was making do with an Argos fan at home. \u201cThe AC here is good though. Honestly, it\u2019s the commute which is the worst \u2013 the Elizabeth line is air-conditioned but if you have to get the bus, it\u2019s unbearable.\u201d Boisdale is serving frozen cocktails to combat the heat, which apparently go down a storm with the office workers.<\/p>\n A group of eight men in their early 20s were enjoying a lunchtime beer in a dizzyingly hot, artificially turfed square outside the shopping centre. \u201cWe can\u2019t afford AC yet,\u201d one said, \u201cthat\u2019s why we work in finance, so one day we can afford it!\u201d Most of them had invested in a Dyson fan, which retail for between \u00a3300 and \u00a3600.<\/p>\n One young man had a novel technique for getting some sleep in the heatwave. \u201cI drink four pints in the evening, that knocks me out!\u201d<\/p>\n People sit in the shade at lunchtime in Canary Wharf, London. Photograph: Kevin Coombs\/Reuters<\/p>\n Fans, air-con units and other seasonal items have spiked in price<\/a> during the heatwave, which puts them further out of reach of the less well off. An industry expert said air-conditioning units had risen by about 17% since April. The Dyson Cool Tower fan was priced at \u00a3299 on Amazon<\/a>, up from a low of \u00a3249.99 during the period examined.<\/p>\n Sipping a glass of rose on her lunch break, Toni, 35, who works in tech said her flat was deliciously cold. \u201cIt\u2019s a new-build in Woolwich, it\u2019s very cool. I love this heat to be honest, I wish it was like this all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n This view was not shared by the people in Whitechapel, just up the road, who don\u2019t have air-conditioned flats or offices to escape to. Shereen, a 21-year-old student, was drinking a bottle of fruit juice in the Budgens supermarket near the station. \u201cI\u2019m in here for the air-con,\u201d she said. Asked if she had it at home, she burst out laughing.<\/p>\n People queue for iced drinks in Whitechapel, an area where many don\u2019t have air-conditioned flats or offices to escape to. Photograph: Martin Godwin\/The Guardian<\/p>\n Unlike the plush venues of Canary Wharf, the traditional workers\u2019 cafes of Bethnal Green do not have the luxury of air-conditioning. E Pellicci, the 126-year-old family-owned cafe, was making do with a cheap white fan positioned in the doorway.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have applied multiple times to install air-conditioning,\u201d said Anna Pellicci, who manages the cafe. \u201cBut we are Grade II-listed, so we aren\u2019t allowed.\u201d She\u2019s compensated for this by moving some tables out of the cafe to avoid crowding and the associated heat. \u201cWe have all been finding it really hot.\u201d<\/p>\n Anna Pellicci, at E Pellicci, a family-owned cafe in Bethnal Green, said due to be Grade II-listed, the cafe can\u2019t install air-conditioning. Photograph: Martin Godwin\/The Guardian<\/p>\n Amy, a waitress at the cafe, said that it was \u201cmuch nicer\u201d at work despite the steam from the espresso machine and warmth of customers. \u201cMy flat is boiling, it\u2019s on the first floor and it is so humid. I have been finding it hard to sleep.\u201d<\/p>\n Several people mentioned the oppressive heat of the No 8 bus, which is much cheaper to travel on than the cool Elizabeth line. On board, passengers mopped their brows as the vehicle crawled down the high street. Overheated children were crying.<\/p>\n But nestled under the imposing concrete tower blocks of the Cranbrook Estate in Tower Hamlets, something rarer than air-conditioning can be found. A green oasis \u2013 a secret garden \u2013 with a sign welcoming visitors to take a look.<\/p>\n Tucked at the back, past green bean, strawberry and rhubarb plants, sits Laura Buckley, the founder of the Cranbrook community food garden, who was smoking a roll-up and chatting with her friend. \u201cWe have been sitting out here pretty much every day during the heatwave,\u201d she said, \u201cthe plants keep it nice and cool.\u201d<\/p>\n E Pellicci, an Italian family-owned cafe in Bethnal Green, made do with a fan positioned in the doorway. Photograph: Martin Godwin\/The Guardian<\/p>\n Wildlife was finding it a wonderful respite from the concrete jungle, too. \u201cWe\u2019ve put out water for the birds and the bees, and there\u2019s a fox which loves drinking from our pond. We have all kinds of nesting birds here, and the beetles nest in our log pile,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s been really hard work keeping all the plants alive in the heat.\u201d<\/p>\n Buckley, with her tumbling long hair and colourful clothes, sat under trailing vines and a nest of cheeping baby wrens, looking almost like a fairytale character. \u201cWe built every little inch of this place. It\u2019s open to everyone and is a garden for the people who live in the estate who are banned from putting pot plants on their balconies.\u201d<\/p>\n Because of all the plants, the garden is significantly cooler than the streets outside. \u201cThis place provides respite and joy for so many people,\u201d said Buckley.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Travelling from his air-conditioned flat to the air-conditioned Elizabeth line to his air-conditioned office, 27-year-old banker Aykhan found…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":452662,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[138,219,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-452661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=452661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452661\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/452662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=452661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=452661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=452661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}