Dave Hill On London: Politics, Places, People

Dave Hill On London: Politics, Places, People

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Dave Hill On London: Politics, Places, People
Dave Hill On London: Politics, Places, People
On London Extra: Covid traces

On London Extra: Covid traces

What has the city learned from the pandemic? Plus ULEZ impacts, a walk down Oxford Street, hope for Conservative moderates, the London Eye at 25 and more

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Dave Hill
Mar 07, 2025
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Dave Hill On London: Politics, Places, People
Dave Hill On London: Politics, Places, People
On London Extra: Covid traces
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All my income from this personal Substack helps to fund the no-ads, no-paywall, high-quality journalism website OnLondon.co.uk. If you aren’t already a paid subscriber and don’t support OnLondon through another avenue, please consider taking the free trial. Thanks, Dave.

I don't recall what I was doing on 7 March 2020, five years ago today, but I know that my On London Extra of 10 March that year contained no reference to the pandemic that was soon to engulf the city.

Looking back, that seems bizarre. The World Health Organisation had declared a global health emergency at the end of January, and the first London case of the disease had been detected in mid-February. Yet in the first week of March I attended the launch in Hackney of Sadiq Khan's re-election campaign, met two members of Khan's team at a café in Euston and dined at Arup HQ in Fitzrovia.

I was still running round town interacting with fellow humans, including rough sleepers and a housing association chief, until the 20 March, just three days before Boris Johnson instructed the nation to stay at home to help contain the new form of coronavirus.

Lockdown had begun and London would never be the same again. How has it changed? What lessons have been learned?

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