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London: the unlockening/relockening

When they introduced the 800+ dark purple in Official UK Coronavirus Dashboard before Christmas, I couldn't believe the numbers could be that bad and thought they certainly wouldn't reach that level in many places. Then the numbers in my local area got to that level and kept going and have been pretty much over 1000 since (going up to nearly 1300 at one point). Today they're down to 'just' 840 and that feels like a massive improvement. :(
 
When they introduced the 800+ dark purple in Official UK Coronavirus Dashboard before Christmas, I couldn't believe the numbers could be that bad and thought they certainly wouldn't reach that level in many places. Then the numbers in my local area got to that level and kept going and have been pretty much over 1000 since (going up to nearly 1300 at one point). Today they're down to 'just' 840 and that feels like a massive improvement. :(

Yeah it took off so fast, but luckily it's moving in the right direction now.

In Worthing we came out of the lockdown at the start of Dec. on 25 cases, it hit a high of 820, now we're on 'only' 630.

Our local hospital trust has more than 3 times the number of covid cases they had at the peak last April, but I don't know the percentage of local cases against those taken in from Kent.
 
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You can't bloody get there any more now that Hammersmith Bridge is closed so I don't find that very surprising.

(It is the poshest residential part of London I've been in though.)
I've been there a few times as a mate lives there , it is well posh.
 
My observation from a walk around South London today is that quite a lot of people are now not bothering with restrictions on outdoors socisl gatherings. A few folk sat around having drinks together. Loads of group sports things, some of them kind of semi distanced and some not. This hasn't started with today's nice weather... Already noticed a fair bit of this the past few weekends but it was particularly obvious today. Not surprising perhaps.
 
My observation from a walk around South London today is that quite a lot of people are now not bothering with restrictions on outdoors socisl gatherings. A few folk sat around having drinks together. Loads of group sports things, some of them kind of semi distanced and some not. This hasn't started with today's nice weather... Already noticed a fair bit of this the past few weekends but it was particularly obvious today. Not surprising perhaps.

Probably relatively low risk, no?

We cycled to St. James’s Park this afternoon and then went for a walk. Huge numbers of cyclists up and down the Mall (closed to motor vehicle) including families with very young children on bikes (I assume parents had driven there).
 
The park near me was certainly very busy yesterday - it gets used by a lot of families with young children as has some large playground areas, and they were rammed, with the parents all chatting to each other, plus people generally obviously mixing casually, though no picnics or anything.

Probably more that there was a brief bit of not entirely shit weather in what's been a miserable few weeks, than anything else.
 
My observation from a walk around South London today is that quite a lot of people are now not bothering with restrictions on outdoors socisl gatherings. A few folk sat around having drinks together. Loads of group sports things, some of them kind of semi distanced and some not. This hasn't started with today's nice weather... Already noticed a fair bit of this the past few weekends but it was particularly obvious today. Not surprising perhaps.
I've been cycling this w/e and have noticed groups of 3+ cyclists out. There was even a solo cyclist have a good ole moan at his fellow cyclists for congregating in groups near a cafe. I guess it's the weather, everyone's been stuck in for a while. The 2 person rule is easy to understand i'd say.
 
Loads of people out on bikes today. And some quite long traffic jams of motorists doing their Sunday essential journeys.

Sunny days seem to bring out the revving sports car guys too, especially around central London.
 
I dunno if it’s that different this weekend really, the smaller local parks were rammed whenever I went to them of a weekend right the way through January. Similar sounding thing of groups of parents and kids all congregated around particular areas. Which I evaded. It was generally really difficult to maintain 2 metres distance because the paths were so busy but the ground was a waterlogged swamp.
 
Loads of people out on bikes today. And some quite long traffic jams of motorists doing their Sunday essential journeys.

Sunny days seem to bring out the revving sports car guys too, especially around central London.
Definitely feels/looks/sounds busier this weekend. The recent cold weather helped re compliance I reckon.
 
The park near me was certainly very busy yesterday - it gets used by a lot of families with young children as has some large playground areas, and they were rammed, with the parents all chatting to each other, plus people generally obviously mixing casually, though no picnics or anything.

Probably more that there was a brief bit of not entirely shit weather in what's been a miserable few weeks, than anything else.
FWIW I don't really care how many people go to parks and if different bubbles have a coffee and a chat while standing in the mud trying to stop their kids from falling off things (and nobody seems to be enforcing anything anyway - there are council folk wandering around but they don't seem to bother with the parks). I wouldn't want the above to be interpreted as such.
 

The contrast between the ‘very centre’ of London and the rest of London since the pandemic began, even neighbouring areas still in Zone 1, is truly staggering.

Travel just a little over a mile westwards to South Kensington and the difference in pedestrian and traffic presence, and percentage of shops open, is breathtaking.

I guess it’s a combination of very low residential occupancy, and fewer essential shops in the likes of Mayfair & the West End that have transformed it into a ghost town pretty much throughout since March 2020.
 
Yeah, not many people live there, and a large proportion of the people who normally work there are either office jobs and WFH, or in retail and retail is closed.
 
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