London, June 30: They were in a pair of stripy green deckchairs, not far from the lake in St James`s Park, officially Britain`s hottest spot today. Two thirty-something company directors, stripped to the waist. Beers in hand, factor 15 and paperbacks abandoned on the browned grass at their sides. They`d started work this morning, they said, like it was any other day. Plenty to do. Then, late morning, one of them had nipped out. Felt the sun, absorbed the heat.
"And we just we thought, sod it, really," said Matt Deasy cheerily, as colleague Ben Hedley answered a couple of calls on the company mobile. "To be fair, ours is a seasonal business, you know. We run a catered ski chalet in the French alps. But there`s a hell of a lot we should be getting on with – emails to send, people to call, stuff to organise. But nothing that can`t wait till tomorrow, we decided. So right now we`re having a business meeting."
As London broiled in 30C-plus temperatures, there were plenty who would gladly have followed the bosses of Bura Snow`s example. "Am I tempted to take the afternoon off?" asked Sarah Clarke, a 34-year-old solicitor, perched with a takeaway salad on the packed steps of the Royal Exchange at the bottom of Cornhill. "God, am I tempted. Like, seriously tempted. I`m a sun junkie … But I can`t. Not really."
Her colleague Ric Wightman, 25, in shirtsleeves and with tie at half-mast, was munching in the sun too. "Normally, of course, I`d have something at my desk," he said. "It`s great, though, isn`t it? Just a shame you have to be in a suit. And take the tube home. That`s going to be disgusting."
Tube officials moved 36 giant mobile fans into ticket halls and began broadcasting health advice over the tannoy. Take a bottle of water with you, travellers were advised, and if you feel unwell, wait until the next station before you pull the alarm. Temperatures underground were set to reach 45C.
But it was hot everywhere in London today. Nice hot to start with: bright sun, clear blue sky, a bit of a breeze to pick the Pret wrappings out of the filled-to-overflowing bins, not too sticky. Nasty hot as the afternoon burned on: waves of it bouncing off the pavement, great grey clouds like sullen bruises. Clammy clothes, blistered feet. It was the hottest day of the year so far: temperatures reached 30.4C in St James`s Park by 3pm. And the Met Office forecast 31C on Wednesday, with the mercury set to rise to 33C in the capital by Thursday.
Southern and eastern England bore the brunt of the heatwave, meteorologists said. Forecaster Paul Knightley of Meteogroup said the high temperatures will spread more widely tomorrow, from Hampshire into Oxfordshire, with 31 to 32C possible in west London and Surrey. But Britain`s highest ever temperature – 38.5C recorded in Faversham, Kent in July 2003 – is thought unlikely to be matched this week.
Despite such temptations it seems that on the whole, we are a disappointingly conscientious lot. In Guildhall Yard, a lunchtime concert from the North Sea Radio Orchestra just coming to its close, headhunting colleagues Chiara Bettonagli and Charlie Kershaw admitted they were "ridiculously tempted" to skive off for the afternoon. "Most of the people who were meant to be on the other end of my calls this morning, weren`t," said Kershaw. "Work`s certainly been turned down a notch. But I don`t think it would look good, you know? Not on a Monday. Far easier to take a Thursday or Friday."
Some were working very hard indeed. "Doesn`t get much better than this," said a perspiring Danny, manning a Piccadilly Whip ice cream van round the back of St Paul`s cathedral. "Though it`s never good enough, obviously. I must have sold a cone every 30 seconds for about the past hour or so. Non-stop, mate. But this is lunchtime."
There were holidaymakers by the hundred, and an awful lot of students celebrating the end of exams. "I`m not skiving," said an indignant Chloe Bailey, 20, a second-year student at King`s College, London. "I`ve got every right to be here, thank you very much … there really is no work I could or should be doing today. And I`m loving it."
