Posts Tagged ‘lockdown’
#MyStrand: Carol and Jenny Pham
One of the things I’ve missed the most during lockdown is grabbing lunch from one of the small businesses on the Strand. I drop in on Co’m In Vietnamese Cafe at 69 Strand every few weeks for a baguette or soup. Craving a bánh mì, I found myself scrolling on Co’m In’s instagram @comin_vietcafe, and…
Read MoreA Dickensian Necropolis, our ‘new normal’ London
As we entered a new decade, little did we know that three months down the line our bustling thoroughfare would come to be haunted by the shadows of London’s Victorian past. Transforming into a flaneur-like figure in the dead of the night to combat his insomnia, Charles Dickens documented his traversing of London in the…
Read MorePeople of the Strand: Alice and Kimberley at Two Temple Place
Like many people, I have been enjoying the virtual offerings of museums and galleries during lockdown. For this post, I’m grateful to Two Temple Place for letting Strandlines share excerpts from their blog ‘Voices from Two Temple Place’. I can’t recommend the blog enough, and applaud the blog’s mission to be an ‘inclusive online platform…
Read More#MyStrand: Brian, Platform Staff at Charing Cross
During lockdown, I’ve been finding myself searching the ‘Strand’ geolocation tag on Instagram. This is what led me to come across Brian’s posts. Brian is a keyworker, and as Platford Staff at Charing Cross he hasn’t stopped going to the Strand every day. His photos have documented how much the Strand has changed during lockdown,…
Read MoreClass of 2020: Graduating From a Distance
A common epithet to describe the coronavirus has been “the invisible enemy”. Not only does the use of the chosen adjective, ‘invisible’, hint at the nature of a biological threat, but it also perpetuates an understanding of the virus as an abstraction, this other-worldly description questions its reality. In a swift four and a half…
Read MoreSnapshots from lockdown
Lockdown in London was announced on 23rd March 2020, but many folks had been social distancing for a week or more before. It’s been heartening to see that the – very few – photos that are being posted on social media with the Strand tagged as the location are showing this main artery emptied of…
Read MoreSensible Stillness
In 1796 Mary Wollstonecraft reflected in print on her travels in Scandinavia. One topic she addressed was quietness. She alludes to the ‘stupid stillness’ of London on a Sunday… which came to mind as I walked along the Strand on a spring morning, 17 March 2020, the day before London lock-down because of coronavirus Covid-19.…
Read More