A city sleeps

AN unnatural quiet in the capital: St Paul’s Cathedral is pictured from the span of the Millennium Bridge, devoid of people, in spring 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic. The sequence of national lockdowns that began in March of that year compelled everyone to spend time at home and to watch the seasons unfolding from one place. In London, the pavements emptied of pedestrians, the streets of cars and the skies of aeroplanes.

This photograph was taken just after 4pm, when the Goodall family was taking its regulation one-hour’s exercise, at a time when this central-london scene would usually be crowded with people and the whole of the great city buzzing with noise and activity. (April 22, 2020) JG

Photograph by John Goodall