West London pollution so bad people can ‘taste the fumes’

By Adrian Zorzut, Local Democracy Reporter

Locals claim a west London neighbourhood is so polluted by heavy traffic they can “taste the pollution in their mouths”.

Residents of Lupus Street in Westminster claim that changes to traffic rules have made the area difficult to live in.

Christina Walsh, 56, has lived on the Churchill Gardens Estate all her life, and said she has never known it to be so polluted with car fumes.

She said: “We’re getting a lot more traffic in Lupus Street because there’s no left turn at Chelsea Bridge.

“That was taken away during lockdown. What you now have is people every day making longer journeys using residential roads like Lupus Street to avoid the traffic.”

Lupus Street is in the middle of Pimlico and, according to one resident, was known as one of the original ‘15-minutes’ towns in London.

Its high street, which included a supermarket, doctor’s surgery and pharmacy, made it popular with residents and a place that outsiders rarely passed through.

That was until the first lockdown in 2020, according to Christina.

She says Transport for London (TfL) stopped allowing cars travelling down Grosvenor Road to turn on to Chelsea Bridge.

Instead, anyone travelling along the road would have to drive all the way down to Vauxhall Bridge to make the crossing.

She claims this clogged up Grosvenor Road and increased the number of vehicles turning into Lupus Street trying to avoid the traffic jam.

Christina added: “When I go along Grosvenor Road I can taste the fumes and it’s because there’s no flow.”

Christina has cancer and relies on buses to get her to the Royal Marsden for treatment.

She usually catches the 360 but claims the traffic is so bad that she’s forced to get off a few stops early and walk home.

She said: “You have chemotherapy and you’re tired but because of traffic, you get off early and walk home.

“That’s really the last thing you want. Sometimes after chemo, I feel really nauseous.”

She claimed the fumes were also affecting her health. She said: “Because my immune system is low I get affected. Nine out of 10 times I get a cough and it goes in a week but now it’s taking three weeks.”

TfL said it had not noticed any increase in vehicles turning into Lupus Street and claimed that including a separate stage for cyclists would have made all traffic and pedestrians wait longer at the junction.

They say this would have increased journey times and congestion.

Westminster councillor Paul Dimoldenberg said: “We supported the TfL consultation to make the Cycleway along Grosvenor Road and Millbank permanent, and we’ve been encouraged by the benefit to bus journey times and increased cycling numbers because of this scheme.

“Westminster has the highest number of cycling accidents in London, so improving cyclist safety is a key priority for us.

“We have seen a slight drop in traffic numbers, together with a drop in vehicle speeds, in Lupus Street since this scheme was implemented, which is what we need if we are to get a grip on cyclist and pedestrian safety, and so we can improve air quality in our city.

“Residents of Lupus Street and the south Pimlico area were consulted on the proposals and only a small number of concerns were raised at the time.

“However, we encourage anyone who has concerns about this scheme to please speak to TfL.”

Pictured top: Christina Walsh standing in Grosvenor Road as traffic passes by (Picture: Facundo Arrizabalaga)