please empty your brain below |
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I managed to get my lot out for a pre-dinner walk yesterday and saw only one car on the road in just shy of three miles. It hasn't been like that since the early days of the first lockdown. Our local park, normally replete with people and animals, was similarly deserted. To paraphrase Depeche Mode, I enjoyed the silence.
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There shouldn't have been many families nipping off to form festive bubbles unless they were all popping round to a single person's house (most unlikely)
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Will that tree in Trafalgar Square get blown over tonight I wonder.
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All the families you couldn’t see were actually in Richmond Park yesterday.
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.. and on the Lea Towpath. Stay Local was working, especially as zone 3 types wern't able to pop down the West End by bus and lack your stamina DG.
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My day took me through the backways of Camberwell and Peckahm. Going through the crimson dusk, the quiet Victorian streets felt properly festive with lots of lights, glimpses into Christmassy front rooms, many doorstep greetings and present drops in progress, and even an Elvis strumming on a corner in Nunhead. It could almost have been a scene from a nostalgic holiday film.
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I normally travel through central London on Christmas Day after church to see the lights and in recent years it is busy with Ubers, black cabs and hire bikes and packs of tourists trying to find something to do. Prets at Trafalgar Square usually had queues outside. This year we drove around after midnight mass and there were plenty doing the same but few people on the streets.
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had been looking forward to cycling into an empty London city centre as one of the few upsides of the Current Circumstances (and not being allowed to visit my family abroad as I would usually do). tbh I wasn't expecting it to completely quiet as in the classic photos (also because I couldn't be bothered to get up and out that early) but without the busses and taxis - and noticeably fewer cars - cycling around London was never more pleasurable. Trafalgar Square is much easier to navigate with just a couple of other cyclists for company...
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In NW London (and so far today) it was was almost as quiet as in Lockdown 1- fewer people walking, but slightly more cars, especially as the day progressed.
Of those I did spot out and about, they were of the demographic that probably weren't celebrating Christmas regardless. The only time I've seen a Christmassy quiet London was a few years ago when we stayed overnight in a courtesy hotel overlooking Regent St after a works party. It snowed overnight so we awoke to a slight ground covering which was magical. |
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I had to drive to a Covid test centre Christmas morning (bah humbug) but the pavements of Highgate, Hampstead, Chalk Farm and Kentish Town were surprising busy with joggers, walkers and people walking their dogs
More drivers than I had been expecting too plus "leisure" cyclists |
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First Christmas in London for me, too, so I did a very similar tour yesterday, just on two wheels. The main sights were rather busy, less so Oxford St and side streets. The complete absence of any type of bus was very noticeable, in a calm and positive way.
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Here in N8 normally at Christmas the streets are empty of parked cars as everyone heads off somewhere else. This year hardly any difference to mormal.
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There was no shortage of people out and about around me. I did 8 mile circular walk (no companion) and was not alone at any time. This included brief nips into woods and across soggy fields.
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No wonder people are no longer taking it “seriously”. The last few lockdowns under whatever name were basically everything open except hospitality and culture (can’t have those open, obviously). Incredible that Brexit was subject to countless votes, rebellions and legal challenges (plus a national referendum); yet the destruction of our economy and society through repeated house arrest is nodded through on prime ministerial diktat.
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If this was around 9.30am then I fear I may have been one of the becloaked cyclists. Apologies for ruining the peace and quiet with garish felt and trim.
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