Xmas in London during a pandemic
It feels like most of my recent posts are around how 2020 has been an incredibly difficult and sad year. It doesn’t help that everything I’ve done over the last year has been impacted by the global pandemic. I know that we’re now well into 2021, but I wanted to talk about 2020 one last time. I promise to make it short this time.
Over the past 10 months, I’ve been extremely careful with my social interactions, as well as following the local travel rules and restrictions. Therefore, I haven’t created as much outdoors content as I’d like to. That’s because grabbing my cameras and hitting the streets, when I had no intention of exercising or travelling to work, felt wrong. But it was Christmas, and there was a great opportunity to capture something unique.
Typically, every year, London dresses up its streets with happy lights, unique exhibits and festive street markets, and you suddenly get overwhelmed with Instagram photos of Oxford Circus, Carnaby Street and Soho, showing happy people, busy streets and packed high-street stores. From experience, simply crossing one of these streets during the festive season could take up to 10 minutes.
It was December 2020, and the global pandemic was at its highest point. With London entering Tier 4 restrictions a couple of weeks before Christmas, it meant that all shops, restaurants, pubs and businesses, were to be closed.
Christmas was officially cancelled…
For most people, this was the worst outcome of all. We wouldn’t get to spend Christmas with our loved ones, and we were asked to remain at home, with only minimum travel allowed. It was a period that would go down in the history books, and we were all part of it. I felt I needed to somehow capture those moments, and since it was Boxing Day, the equivalent of Black Friday for Americans, I decided to grab my camera, hit the once busy streets of central London and capture those rare moments.
Checkout the full gallery here.
It felt strange documenting the empty streets of London during what it’s traditionally the busiest time of the year. At the same time, the emptiness and calm of London’s heart, was extremely beautiful to see and experience. There were a few people walking around the empty streets, with some shops doing “click and collect”, while others, once glorious and iconic, stood there with their doors shut once and for all.
I took the road back with mixed feelings. Walking the empty streets of Carnaby Street certainly was a strange experience, but at the same time, I managed to capture moments that will go down in history.
Till next time…
