Under normal circumstances, London on a Monday morning is a bustling city teeming with life. But circumstances are decidedly not normal, although it's possible that normality will start to return in the coming weeks. And although residential areas and suburbs have a level of activity, the centre of town, the focus of arts and culture, does not. A global heart of art, theatre and music has become grey and still.
So here's an invitation for you to accompany me and my camera on a socially distanced walk around London’s cultural core and see it as you have never seen it before – and, let's hope, will never do again. We’ll start our trip in the middle: Trafalgar Square, looking South towards Northumberland Avenue (with the Thames just out of sight behind). The only person there was the man cleaning the fountains.
Behind us, the National Gallery would usually be looking down on a throng.
As we walk towards Charing Cross and Villiers Street, a restaurant window tells the story of a city in suspended animation.
Across the river on the South bank, a solitary jogger populates the walkway by the National Theatre.
Red and white tape over the benches reminds us of the pleasures of a brief rest on a warm day.
Carrying on along the river towards the East, here’s the walkway by the Sea Containers Building. When you take all the people out of the city, its contours seem to change.
The morning rush hour at Blackfriars Station is a distant memory.
The Tate Gallery still shouts out its message of the value of art.
The serene beauty of St Pauls Cathedral and the way it matches the lines of the Millennium Bridge are all the more stark when the bridge is empty.
In normal times: one of the busiest commuter areas in the city. I could never have imagined it empty of people in daytime.
The Playhouse Theatre won't be playing the Seagull any time soon. Northumberland Avenue traffic will start to return, but probably won't reach its former rush hour madness.
Let’s finish this circuit where we started, back at the Luytens fountains in Trafalgar Square. The mermaids care nothing for any of this.
Photographs taken on Monday 11th May 2020.
