"London besieged by limescale"

I moved to London in 2004 from Botswana. In Botswana I had lovely soft water from the standpipes or taps at home, unless of course i went to the cattle post. No need to clean the inside of my kettle, and the shower only needed a quick wipe after use.DAround here, it is really a huge fight against hard water. Evryone is running for bottled water. Londoners need to scrub taps and stuff in the shower with wirewool every day to get rid of the limescale buildup.
Recently i came across the above advert in the London Lite Newspaper and it reminded me of the how amazed i was to see such ornamentation and beautiful designs of London buildings when i first came here. Then on closer look, i realised they were covered by some kind of soot, which gave them a cloudy look. (But not as exagerated by the images above) I guess waste-air producing industries and air pollution in general might have contributed, and maybe a slight impact of acid rain could have resulted in those.