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FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT
The British capital is a city off, which never returned to normal: and now it fears the arrival of a new blockade. Which, mind you, doesn’t mean that everyone is barricaded in the house: it was never like this here, not even at the height of the pandemic, even then we went to quiet walkhe. But it would still involve a series of restrictions that would inflict the final blow on an already mortally wounded metropolis.
People already go out a little and, above all, they do struggling to get back to the office. The government says that two-thirds of the workers have returned to their jobs, but the anecdote suggests otherwise: this is a city of people in Pijama your Zoom. The City remains semivoute and also the ministries; events take place online: book presentations – Ken Follett the other day -, design festival, Italian at the end of the month, language courses – at our Cultural Institute: everything happens remotely.
The effects are cascading: e catastrophic. Nobody goes to the center anymore and all the activities that depended on the flow of travelers suffer it. Pret Manger, the ubiquitous sandwich chain, has had to lay off a third of its staff because many of its branches remain closed. Restaurants work in hiccup and even the chic ones have become to carry out to survive. An example: Brasserie Zdel behind Piccadilly Circus, where you used to fight for a table, is now closed for lunch and opens only between 6 and 9 at night (and only the memory of its famous weekend cabaret remains ).
The government tried to encourage the Return at work but with little success: why face hours of squashed commute on the subway and have lunch with a sandwich on your desk when you can stay comfortably at home? But now, with the infections recurring, authorities could be forced to backtrack and recommend again smart work for everyone. A vicious cycle.
Social life also languishes. The mythical clubs private they are the shadow of themselves and they try to reinvent themselves with difficulty: at Home House, in Portman Square, the rooms are half empty and their entire calendar of events has moved online. But a social club without a social life is a contradiction in terms: and so are the cancellations of the shareholders.
At least the culture can be enjoyed with more calm: because thanks to the rules of distancing from the corridors of museums They are no longer crowded and you can comfortably stop in front of a Canaletto or a Turner (but you should be lucky to book your visiting hours). Theaters nothing, however: only in November will a couple of musicals begin again, for now the West End a neighborhood ghost.
Schools have reopened, but universities remain remote. At both University College and King’s College, the capital’s two main universities, at least until Christmas, all online teaching – and the poor freshmen all the inaugural events had been canceled. Sad youth.
Even the real estate market in freefall: many people sell houses in London to move to a bigger house in the country (with a smart job there is no difference and money is made in the air healthy). Here even our historic neighbors have put the sale sign in front of the door: we will miss them.
Tonight, Londoners look with fear at the new closures in the north and wonder: when I touched for us?
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