When you think about the recent heatwave, what pictures come to mind?
You wouldn’t be blamed for thinking: crowded beaches, parks and pools. These photos were splashed on many front pages and news sites across the country last month. Out of context, this looks like an oversold holiday.
Except that is not the reality for most Londoners. Whether you’re driving buses, laying tarmac, or collecting rubbish, London’s lidos do not factor into your average workday. Yes, many have days off. But these photos aren’t representative of most Londoners facing a cost of living crisis head-on.
One Central London barista who wished to remain anonymous, said: “The images of Londoners enjoying the sun in their local parks wouldn’t exist without hospitality workers.
“We serve drinks and ice creams that make the sun more bearable. With 11-hour shifts, no air conditioning and the heat of coffee machines, your barista will feel the heat tenfold.”
A postal worker in Twickenham – who did not want to be named – said brain fog, fatigue and headaches were just “an average day of work in the heatwave”.
While a Twickenham plumber, who works almost exclusively on water mains outside and wished to remain anonymous, said: “I had to work in full protective gear, a high-vis jacket and a protective hat during the heatwave. It was incredibly hot.”
While there is official guidance on work during extreme temperatures, the UK has no laws in place to mandate when it’s simply too hot to work.
Organisations like Royal Mail have reviewed these risks and published findings.
I also have no doubt that every large corporation operating in the UK will have undertaken risk mitigation reviews – if only to limit the chances of litigation.
However Jay – a Twickenham corner shop owner – said: “Everyone I know is struggling with money. The heat and their health come second. They care about trying to survive.”
This is where media coverage matters. Not every publication fell into this trap. But it was a fairly consistent theme of sunbathers, lakeside shots, and countless crowded beaches.
Cue this (admittedly very wholesome) lead photo from The Times showing a young child jumping into a pool. I’ve found a comparable stock image below.
If you skim the article, you see a river, a lido, a beach, a woman thoroughly enjoying an ice cream, and even a cheese-rolling event. There isn’t a single photo of people working through the heat. All under the headline: “Britons swelter through ‘tropical night’”. The Times has been approached for comment.
This is nothing specific to The Times. With some exceptions, almost every publication ran with similar heatwave visuals. Alongside, there was a lot of in-depth reporting – including the tragic spate of 11 water-related deaths.
And no wonder some images show Brits sweltering by bodies of water – this is a strategy many opt for to cool down.
The uncomfortable problem is if these photos become the dominant visual coverage that shapes our understanding of a heatwave.
When they shape our understanding of a heatwave – as a series of hot and sticky visits to the park – we forget we find ourselves in the midst of two crises: a cost of living crisis and a climate crisis.
Simon Oldridge co-founded the National Emergency Briefing, a prime-time televised briefing about the climate and nature crisis.
Oldridge said: “Too much heatwave coverage still treats extreme heat as a lifestyle story rather than a risk story.
“Images of crowded beaches obscure the bigger picture: the worst impacts of climate change on health, food security, infrastructure, nature, economic stability and national resilience.
“But the public still has little sense of the scale and immediacy of these risks or how deeply they could be affected.”
We absolutely should include pool divers in our coverage. If anything, it adds a moment of joy to what can otherwise feel like bad news roulette.
But if we let these photos serve as the dominant visual, we characterise the heatwave as a prolonged and sweaty trip to the beach. Doing so misses the lived experience of so many London’s workers in a cost of living crisis.
As we mark another World Environment Day on Friday, June 5, it also fails to explain why these heatwaves are now occurring far more frequently.
FEATURED IMAGE CREDIT: Elsa Nightingale
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