Remembering when a London ice rink let pets cool down due to heatwave

The good old-fashioned British heatwave is yet to really arrive in 2021, but it was a very different story 62 years ago.

The summer of 1959 remains one of the driest on record, with temperatures reaching highs of 34.4C in July, as the sun stuck around for weeks.

In London, many struggled with the heat and some even took to sleeping in Hyde Park and other cool spaces over their own beds.

It wasn’t just people suffering, either. On July 9, 1959, it was so hot that Streatham Ice Rink allowed people to bring their pets in for a quick cool down.