Life in lockdown begins
IT WAS a day when you could hear the birds sing in places they had not been heard in years above the usual din of crowds and traffic.
As the spring sun shone on cities and towns across the country their chirruping floated across empty squares, streets and shopping centres.
Traffic was stilled. Shopping crowds melted away. Few tourists ventured out. Retail centre car parks lay vacant and railway and bus stations stood empty, robbed of shopping-day bustle.
This was the day the UK went quiet, the first of what ministers and health officials have warned could be a prolonged shutdown of the country to stem the spread of a virus that has so far killed at least 233 in Britain, and thousands more across mainland Europe and the rest of the world.
Cafés, pubs, restaurants, gyms, leisure centres, cinemas and nightclubs were told to close by Saturday morning after it became clear that too many people had been ignoring the Government’s pleas to stay away from social settings, with many apparently happy to play a form of Covid-19 Russian roulette with their health and that of those more vulnerable than them.
Speaking at a press briefing late on Friday afternoon, Boris Johnson had told the nation: “I do accept that what we’re doing is extraordinary – we’re taking away the ancient inalienable right of freeborn people of the United Kingdom to go to the pub, and I can understand how people feel about that.
“But I say to people who do go
‘I do accept that what we’re doing is taking away the ancient inalienable right of freeborn people of the United Kingdom to go to the pub.’
against the advice that we’re getting, the very clear advice that we’re getting from our medical and scientific experts, you know you’re not only putting your own life, the lives of your family, at risk – you’re endangering the community, and you’re making it more difficult for us to get on and protect the NHS and save lives.”
But even then there were those who appeared determined to spend one last evening quaffing beer and drinking wine – as if they were immune to a virus entwining the world in its grip.
Before last orders were called for what could be months drinkers continued to rub shoulders at bars and tables.
In just one city, Bristol, there were reports that several pubs were doing a roaring trade, with one pop-up street bar selling off its stock for £2 a pint. Pubs and bars along the city’s North
Street and in the Clifton district were described as “packed” – although many in the city centre had shut their doors shortly after Mr Johnson had spoken.
But as dawn broke over Britain yesterday a very different scene was settling over the country.
In Trafalgar Square, the pigeons had the heart of the capital to themselves. In Leicester Square, the centre of London’s entertainment district, restaurants and bars were shuttered and those few who had ventured out wandered disconsolately along near-empty pavements. It was a similar picture across the rest of the country, where high streets and shopping centres had begun to look like ghost towns.
Birmingham’s Bullring shopping centre was empty on what would usually be one of the busiest days for shoppers buying last minute Mother’s Day gifts, as was Cribbs Causeway in Bristol and the East Midlands Designer Outlet, near Mansfield.
Aerial images showed Tube trains parked up in sidings in east London after public transport in the capital had already begun to run on a restricted service, with commuters heeding appeals to work from home. Stations such as Kings Cross in London, Manchester Piccadilly and Glasgow Central were deserted. Bars, cafés and restaurants had posters in their windows, informing customers they were shut until further notice, or advising regulars that only takeaways were available.
Across the country gyms and leisure clubs, normally throbbing with an army of fitness fans, lay quiet – their running machines, cross trainers and swimming pools still and silent as their users found alternative ways of staying in shape at home, with motivating instruction videos and yoga mats.
Even the National Trust, which had waived entry fees to parks and gardens, announced it would now close them.
Police are hoping to rely on the cooperation of pub and restaurant owners and customers when it comes to enforcing the closures.
A spokesman for the National Police Chiefs’ Council said: “We expect business owners will want to support the measures designed to keep us all safe. We will police as normal. If officers see specified businesses open, they will remind them of the Government advice.”
In Britain’s residential suburbs there were attempts to maintain a semblance of normality. Though here too, the hospitality trade had shut up shop, and families went for walks. With schools now closed for what could be months to come, parents seemed keen to take an opportunity of the good weather to get their children out and into fresh air.
In Teddington, south-west London, children making their way on foot and bicycle to Bushy Park waved to each other, while parents – mindful of social distancing – offered words of comfort and support. A queue formed outside L’Amandine, a local café, as those who could not do without their morning latte waited to enter one at a time to order a takeaway.
The presence of the odd, solitary figure outdoors – whether jogging down London’s Regent Street or cycling past Zizzi restaurant in Leicester – only served to emphasise the air of sheer unreality that enveloped the country on Saturday, leaving the question hanging in the air: what will normality look like when it returns?