London: the unlockening/relockening

[davesgcr]

Trains are cleaned at night - but now on a much enhanced programe , and frequency for deep cleaning , plus there are groups of extra cleaners doing in service passenger area cleaning - concentrating on touch points (door open buttons, handrails etc) , as well as table surfaces (where provided) - for example everything turning round at St Albans gets a clean , ditto Luton, Bedford and many other locations. Inter City trains are seeing cleaning on route - not just litter picking but surface wiping. These are redeployed staff and new entrants.

Yes - if you see these cleaning bods at stations , be nice and say thanks to them. I always do. They often do 12 hour shifts.

Useless fact - New York City subway doing much the same - no night service for heavy cleaning and enhanced in service cleans. Someone went out and did about 34 random COVID checks on in service trains - not a single positive.

Somehow need to get passengers back on public transport , they having been scared off them for so long by the media etc.

 

[FridgeMagnet]

First day for me back in the City since early March.

And I’ve just realised what’s so eerie. I can’t ever remember being in the City before and not having a constant aural assault from construction work. Almost nobody is hammering anything almost anywhere. (Ironically, the one place they seem to be is opposite my building...)

I was going to say "that sounds weird" but then I remembered that, while there was loads of construction going on not too long ago in my area, a lot of it was probably finishing off old work that had to be paused, and I'd guess there is little new work.

Doubt I will be in an office this year. I started a new job with a company which used to rent a city office, but I doubt they're going to renew the contract, so the only time I'll have actually gone there is for the interview pre-lockdown.

 

[hash tag]

Yes - if you see these cleaning bods at stations , be nice and say thanks to them. I always do. They often do 12 hour shifts.

Useless fact - New York City subway doing much the same - no night service for heavy cleaning and enhanced in service cleans. Someone went out and did about 34 random COVID checks on in service trains - not a single positive.

Somehow need to get passengers back on public transport , they having been scared off them for so long by the media etc.

The workers that most people never see, never think about, the most poorly paid undervalued workers doing a filthy, difficult job many people wouldnt ever think about.

These difficult times have certainly made many people so grateful and appreciative.

 

[teuchter]

Latest unlockening indicator - the "British Pullman" fancy dinner train usually rolls through Brixton and Loughborough Junction a couple times a week - that all stopped in March.

I've just seen it run again for the first time since then.

 

[quimcunx]

Is it time for 'london: the relockening' thread yet?

how about now?

 

[Pickman's model]

how about now?

Give it a day or two

 

[Griff]

First day for me back in the City since early March.

And I’ve just realised what’s so eerie. I can’t ever remember being in the City before and not having a constant aural assault from construction work. Almost nobody is hammering anything almost anywhere. (Ironically, the one place they seem to be is opposite my building...)

Took this picture from the top deck of a Routemsster on July 10th at 12.45, lunchtime. It still freaks me out looking at it, the lack of people where there should be so many. Queen Victoria Street.

 

[Artaxerxes]

Renters fleeing inner London in 'race for space', data suggests

Places such as Chessington becoming more popular with rise of home working

www.theguardian.com

Its weird the different perceptions of risk people have because I just can't imagine buying a brand new house or looking for somewhere to rent by choice* right now, even without the risk of Covid around the economy is a fingertip grip from falling off a cliff.


*well aware theres more than a few not doing this by choice.

 

[teuchter]

Its weird the different perceptions of risk people have because I just can't imagine buying a brand new house or looking for somewhere to rent by choice* right now, even without the risk of Covid around the economy is a fingertip grip from falling off a cliff.


*well aware theres more than a few not doing this by choice.

I can totally see why, if you are sitting in an expensive studio flat in Earls court, with no outside space, no immediate prospect of returning to a workplace in central london, most of your normal central london entertainments closed down and possible redundancy looming, you might decide to find somewhere cheaper and less cramped, further out from town.

 

[Teaboy]

The guy who owns the flat below me got hacked off with his commute into Canary Wharf each day. Back in January he decided to rent his own flat out and rent a serviced studio in Canary Wharf itself.

Then, of course, the virus hit and he's since been working from home in said tiny (and stupidly expensive) Canary Wharf studio whilst it's a ghost town all around him with most places closed. He's pretty philosophical about it just mentioned 'you couldn't make it up'.

 

[scifisam]

I can totally see why, if you are sitting in an expensive studio flat in Earls court, with no outside space, no immediate prospect of returning to a workplace in central london, most of your normal central london entertainments closed down and possible redundancy looming, you might decide to find somewhere cheaper and less cramped, further out from town.

Also if their tenancy is due for the usual shitty six month renewal, the landlord is still trying to increase the rent and the letting agent is asking for more admin fees, staying put is even less attractive.

 

[Me76]

I've been going in to the office a couple of times a week for mental health reasons. The 8.28 train has been fine.

Had a 9am meeting the other day so got the 7.58 train which was not so fine. Not possible to social distance (and a bit of a foot argument with someone who seemed to think it was fine to stretch their legs out and then give me a dirty look when I put my feet under the seat I was sitting on and they touched hers).

Tbh, I'm going to have to go in more often soon. I'm in charge of the team that deal with office shit and we are opening the office more widely. So I am trying to be sanguine about it. I will always wear a mask. I will try not to touch stuff. I will wash my hands. I will ignore people who are being dicks and just try to focus on me and not let it stress me.

I feel this is probably what all key workers, including those in supermarkets, have been doing all the way through.

 

[HalloweenJack]

As I go about my day, one this first day of autumn, I wonder whether what I am doing now will be arrestable in 24 hours...

 

[Pickman's model]

As I go about my day, one this first day of autumn, I wonder whether what I am doing now will be arrestable in 24 hours...

posting here for starters

 

[Teaboy]

how about now?

Very shortly by the looks of it:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-engla...oronavirus&link_location=live-reporting-story

[/URL]

 

[xenon]

I just came back from London on Monday, visiting my dad. TBH i'm not bothered about being on the tube and trains for my own sake. Rather than the I imagine / hope, the very small risk of picking up the virus and transferring it to him. It's not like I can get there any other way. Will follow travel advice if things change i.e. no travel unless emergency.

 

[Cerv]

Soho lives on. the temporary pedestrianisation to allow outside dining has been extended one month until end October.

Soho to stay pedestrianised until the end of October

Like their peers across the rest of the country, Soho's restaurants remain in a struggle for their own survival – made harder last week by the Government's introduction of a 10pm curfew.

www.standard.co.uk

 

[teuchter]

Was down on the South Bank yesterday afternoon, and quite surprised how busy it was, despite many of the larger institutions along there still being closed.

Got the slight impression there was a high proportion of hen/stag type groups roaming around too

 

[nagapie]

This thread will probably shortly have to be renamed London: the relockening

 

[FridgeMagnet]

Was down on the South Bank yesterday afternoon, and quite surprised how busy it was, despite many of the larger institutions along there still being closed.

Got the slight impression there was a high proportion of hen/stag type groups roaming around too

So was I and I also thought both of those things - well, not sure whether they were hen/stag or just people going out or both, but generally very busy. Even more skateboarders than normal. A fair number of tourists in town too.

 

[Winot]

Went to the British Museum this morning to see the Tantra exhibition. It was quite nice and quiet inside but of course they are controlling numbers.

Then hung around outside Oxford Circus tube for 10 minutes waiting for daughter and that seemed really quite busy, as was Soho (where we went for lunch).

The tube there and back was still not up to usual levels.

 

[Johnny Doe]

I braved a soft play place for an hour late afternoon this evening, for the first time in 6/7 months. They were operating at 40% capacity and sanitising regularly and it is a very big place, so it doesn't feel like it was any riskier than the kids being at school and us adults using pubs or restaurants with measures in place.

So all it seemed sensible...until 5:30pm kicking out time when all the kids and all the parents (many without masks) crowded into the small reception area to retrieve and put on the kids' shoes.

My takeway from this, was that if you don't think about these things from start to finish, there isn't much point in the half you do at all

 

[Artaxerxes]

Was down on the South Bank yesterday afternoon, and quite surprised how busy it was, despite many of the larger institutions along there still being closed.

Got the slight impression there was a high proportion of hen/stag type groups roaming around too

Left my shared studio late last night around 6pm and it was the first time I felt truly and totally anxious about population denisty, the buses and Liverpool St were rammed. Had to get off the bus well before my actual stop.

 

[scifisam]

I braved a soft play place for an hour late afternoon this evening, for the first time in 6/7 months. They were operating at 40% capacity and sanitising regularly and it is a very big place, so it doesn't feel like it was any riskier than the kids being at school and us adults using pubs or restaurants with measures in place.

So all it seemed sensible...until 5:30pm kicking out time when all the kids and all the parents (many without masks) crowded into the small reception area to retrieve and put on the kids' shoes.

My takeway from this, was that if you don't think about these things from start to finish, there isn't much point in the half you do at all

The Greenwich Comedy festival - which was outdoors anyway - had people leave row by row. Something like that seems sensible.

 

[teuchter]

So, here we are at the un-unlockening.

 

[Artaxerxes]

Lockeny Geezer, apples and pairs, alf a pound of Corona.

 

[Pickman's model]

So, here we are at the un-unlockening.

I thought you'd be very happy at the re-locking

 

[hash tag]

 

[hash tag]

I am selfishly not worried for myself as I am not mixing indoors with anyone, though Mrs Tag is still going into her office occasionally and might catch it.Generally, Im finding it all rather depressing.

 

[cupid_stunt]

I thought you'd be very happy at the re-locking

But, this is the whole of London, not just a bathroom door.