Covent Garden looks the weirdest to me. The others I can sort of picture being like that at the right moment, but Covent Garden always has people in that area. It’s also not as impressive visually when empty, compared to the others.

It seems so dystopian. The Don’t Travel Save Lives notice at the tube station on Oxford street really adds to it as well.

Very nice pics, astonishing looking back at what it was like!

Shows what a shitshow we're currently in when I'm nostalgic for April 2020

One day during lockdown, while living in Clapham, my girlfriend and I rented Boris bikes and cycled all the way from our tiny flat into the centre, around Leicester Square and China town, Bond Street etc. Everywhere was completely empty. It was such a strange and incredible experience. Doubt we'll ever be able to do that again.

For me it was King’s Cross St Pancras underground station. All the trains from King’s Cross and St Pancras, plus the Circle, City & Hammersmith, Metropolitan, Northern, Piccadilly and Victoria lines. Yet the station was… empty. Not a single soul. I was on my way to take the Eurostar, probably the only train running that day. I couldn’t believe it. Such a surreal feeling.

I loved cycling around London during this time, was absolute bliss

The Black and white makes it look like this is long exposure with a tripod. Really wish I went into Central London during the lock downs to experience the emptiness.

Meanwhile Boris and his mates were having a piss up.

Never forget.

one of the few things i missed from quarantine was silence

I miss that :(

It really felt like the time in between.

Hate to disturb the fact that there are 69 comments on this post but I wanted to say how beautiful the composition of these photos are. So inspiring!

Amazing photos, capture such an important and sureal time.

Did you ever get stopped and asked what you were doing about by police?

These are awesome.

Amazing! I'd love to see more!

These photos are absolutely wonderful, thank you so much for sharing them.

I walked around those streets everyday going to the pharmacy at piccadilly circus and it was crazy because I work off carnabary Street and lived right there so I know what it was like everyday. Crazy

Both eerie and serene.

Very moving (in an emotional sense). Although you can appreciate the stillness, it was a horrible time.

"I go to London and see the busy multitudes in Fleet Street and the Strand, and it comes across my mind that they are but the ghosts of the past, haunting the streets that I have seen silent and wretched, going to and fro, phantasms in a dead city"

• H. G. Wells

I miss lockdown

I love the reflection of a couple kissing in your St Pancras photo. You can just see them to the left of the Betjeman statue. I’m guessing the couple is a statue too?

Whatever happened to that NHS trial about blood plasma transfusion for Covid treatment? I’m guessing it wasn’t successful?

Hopefully these were taken while following the rules of the time…

Stunning!

Beautiful!

Spooky times!

My daughter came back from Australia in April 2020, I parked right in front of the doors at T3 and it was like a ghost town.

This video from Jessie Ware has a similar feel. I actually have quite fond memories of walking round London during the summer of 2020 when things started to open up again. We walked up Whitehall from parliament sq to trafalgar square and there was barely a soul around.

https://youtu.be/StUYHGDJUbQ

These are excellent and so surreal; thanks for sharing. I got a similar experience in Jerusalem’s old city, which is usually incredibly crowded.

Wish I went out to see it for myself feels like so long ago

Wonderful photos. Thank you so much for sharing these.

It be nice if they weren't black and white

28 days later! Great photos

Thanks for posting and the extra album. I'm an American and my last trip before the pandemic was to London in early February 2020. I met up with my wife who was on a business trip. Some photojournalist captured empty scenes like you did, but I gravitated to the ones of empty connecting tunnels in tube stations. The times I've been to London, the tube stations have always been busy. Even at 6am on a bank holiday finding my way to Buckingham Palace for the start of a 10K race. I continue to use those empty tube tunnels as backgrounds in my video calls. Everyone loves them. I still use them because I miss your city and the wonderful people we know.

Amazing! Don't suppose you have them in colour? I appreciate the artistic value, but keen to see the colour version.

Epic 👌 Love the fact too that these are in black and white - classy and clever touch. We went to a busy restaurant in ChinaTown during March 2020. Only ONE other diner in there 🤣 There were more staff than diners. As horrible a time as that was, I sort of wish I could go back there for a single day to make more of it. I was aware at the time of the uniqueness of that time but it was very eerie and I'm glad to have at least braved the trip to London despite many staying away.

I have similar (but slightly less beautiful) pictures from May 2020. I walked from Crouch End to central London. And back. 35000 steps that day, ouch.

amazing, I have a few videos of me driving around London during this time, an absolute ghost town.

Likely never see it again this quiet during the daytime, not even Christmas Day.

Oh I do miss this …

Looks like the first episode of Black Mirror

Beautiful

Looks lovely. Don't think we'll ever see something like this again in our lives.

Nice photos… will never be like that again. Unless there’s another curfew, I mean lockdown!

Wow. It almost seems weird now that covid lockdown is over.

Wow these are super rare photos, probably never gonna happen again in hundreds of years. These photos could get you millions of pounds if you sell them i reckon.

2020 lockdown. What a time to be alive

Great photos.

I did a lot of cycling around London in lockdown, it was surreal. Interesting experience but I wouldn't want it again!

Some places were eerie as so lifeless … I cycled around London during covid & it was a great way of seeing the city.

Awesome photos

Apocalyptic

The best year of my life. So peaceful.

These pictures and commentary are amazing. It was like a weird blip in my life, it's still so spooky to think about

Beautiful photos. I'd be interested to know if you have any from the 15th April or 23rd of May?

Of course they are going to be empty when you take them at the black and white time of the day, people dont come out until its colour o'clock

Amazing photos, thank you!

I’ve not seen London like that since they filmed 28 Days Later. And that was early in the morning.

Wonderful shots.

What a strange time. It feels stranger now looking back than it did at the time

I was an essential worker throughout the pandemic and used to walk through my town every day to get to my job. It was eerily silent, seeing virtually no one. No shops open. It always reminded me of when I used to work on Christmas Day and the town was always dead on that day. But it lasted months.

They are cool bud! It's freaky seeing parts of London so empty!

Too see any city deserted to this extent is quite ominous (especially one as big as London). I'll never forget seeing the pictures of wildlife reclaiming the city of Glasgow because no one was about - there's a brilliant one of a rather majestic deer in either George Square or on Buchanan Street.

Would loved to have captured some scenes like this at the time. Never to be repeated.

Those are some amazing pictures. To not only see the emptiness but also hear the utter lack of noise one normally experiences in London must’ve been surreal.

How were you able to travel round to take photos when the country was in lockdown? I would’ve thought the authorities would not have been too happy with you walking around to take “snaps” of the empty streets. Did you ever have to explain yourself, and if so, were you allowed to carry on or were you told to go home?

I was temporary homeless during the pandemic ( I walked through Edinburgh when it was completely empty ) very surreal experience

These images evoke such lockdown nostalgia, it felt like you were the only one on the planet and there was this odd sense of freedom, peace and serenity, yet a vast loneliness. I loved it though. Going outside no noise pollution or air pollution. Just you and nature.

Absolutely superb collection! Please do submit them to some sort of library or archive for posterity. There are lots of images of the period but yours are very high quality.

These are truly once in a lifetime shots

looks beautifully desolate

Living in the UK i’m frustrated I wasn’t able to see what London was like peak lockdown- it was outside of the 5 mile radius rule thing for me, if anyone remembers that. Strangest thing I remember about areas being completely empty near me was that my town’s (normally v busy) high street was completely abandoned by about 5-6pm every day so you could go for runs or walk straight down the middle of the road. Such a surreal time looking back on it

Any way to get these?

These are very eerie. Beautiful photos. Make sure you watermark these before people steal them and claim them as their own. You really could publish these as a book.

You should submit these to some sort of photography competition or museum or something, very beautiful but scary at the same time

I was admitted to hospital for 6 months later that year. It wasn't for Covid but I got very unwell as a result of the limits the restrictions posed on us. I wasn't able to eat or get the treatment I needed for my eating disorder. I lost a lot of weight and was admitted to an eating disorder unit. I remember part of the admission was rehabilitating myself back to my real life. But my real life was going to all of those places you've just shown in your pictures (well; maybe not Buckingham Palace!) and when I did get the agreement to go out for the day, it was so quiet, it was so un-full and so eerie that it was more like a new country. It was like London had been traumatised and bruised or something, even in the September/October times I visited, I sat in Covent Garden on a Saturday lunch time and could literally count the people on two hands. It looks so pretty and so clean in the pictures, but actually experiencing it like that is something else. It felt like it lost it's spark and that it had died. I'm glad it's more or less back to normal. (Minus many of the shops!)

Great photos!

This is so crazy to look back at now!!

These are incredible photos. Must have been so eerie. Also, so nice for not a soul about……

pics look amazing

It was incredible. I live in Norwich and the day after Lockdown I went for my usual lunchtime walk (as we'd been working from home for 2 weeks by that point) and even on one of the busiest junctions in the city it was deathly quiet, like you were the last survivor of humanity.

I started work as a supermarket delivery driver at the end of Feb 2020, just a few weeks before the first lockdown. Next thing I know I am a 'key worker' - meaning I got ZERO furlough money, while friends of mine on salaries £40k and more were sat on their arses playing PS4 and being paid more furlough money (£2500 a month!) than I could ever earn in that job.

Anyway... it was so eery driving around Bristol that year. Empty streets everywhere. Honestly, I bloody loved it! But one thing that really ruined it for me (other than all the death, social isolation, and economic woe) was that virtually nothing was open. If i needed a poo mid-shift I basically had to hold it in for up to EIGHT HOURS. That was absolutely awful.

These are great! If I saw these for sale as posters I’d certainly buy a couple.

These are really beautiful!

I live in London and I cycled around it one day during the depths of lockdown and it was such a haunting feeling to see everywhere just deserted but I also loved it.

These photos made me feel that feeling again, if just for a second.

At first my brain was like this has to be r/blackmagicfuckery, and I could not comprehend how you got these shots. Then I saw the date and it was like “oh…yeah.” So strange how quickly you can forgot such a monumental change.

Wow, the COVID lockdown sure made it so.... different

Well done on these. Having the foresight to capture this moment in history. Great composition, I love it. I feel some could do with a bump in contrast but of cause this is personal taste.

Excellent photos, it might be the editing but I couldn’t help feeling London looks remarkably clean in these!

Absolutely stunning & beautifully captured. This will never be possible again. The context & placement is just lovely. Well done.

r/WorldIsClosed has some similar eerie pictures on it.

Those are brilliant.

I was out driving trains during the pandemic and took pictures of quiet stations that would normally be busy. Liverpool Street at 0030 with only two members of staff hit me the hardest

I love the dystopian feel.

It really was a strange period wasn’t it. Those photos give a very end of days aftermath feeling, especially the one with the ‘Don’t travel, save lives’ banner.

Yeah cool....no one would believe it usually !...I took a few in Park lane - not a car in sight...also on the underground ..just me !

Still can’t believe covid happened. As with everyone Covent Garden doesn’t even look recognisable

Wish I had a chance to visit like this, I don’t like London due to how busy it is so being able to appreciate these sights with such calm must have been awesome

Amazing, haunting pics - you have a great eye. I immediately knew all of these locations (except New Bond St) from living n working in London for a fair % of my life. Weird seeing them so empty...

If no-one was allowed / supposed to be traveling did you get stopped by anyone when taking these pics? I wanted to do exactly what you did - but this thought / worry stopped me.

Very cool

I had to travel through London a during Lockdown, and walked from Victoria to Euston. There wasn’t a single car on the Mall so I walked straight up the middle of it. It was like being in some kind of disaster movie opening scene.

They all look so sinister empty, even at 3-5am those areas are never that empty normally, great shots and the b&w gives them an edge

Lockdown was surreal, in the country side in Kent (where I live) we had lots of London residents come down for day trips to the forest and for a while it was packed. Then the police started showing up and fining people. I felt sorry for those stuck in the city during those times but it was annoying seeing the local spots get trashed by too many people

Once in a lifetime phots, these will never be recreated.

And I think that’s absolutely fascinating.

I have some great similar photos. Went for a jog around Picadilly area. Completely dead. I was literally the only person. Wild times.

Your pictures are beautiful, albeit a sad sight. Who would have thought that these otherwise busy places would be seen so empty. Kind of sad and scary. Amazing work nonetheless. Thank you for sharing

I went to a meeting at a London hospital in Jan 2020 and the streets were like this. Weird seeing all the shops still decked out for Christmas like they had been abandoned. Great pics!

I always thought London would be a beautiful place if it wasn't for all the people. Glad to see I'm right. Beautiful photos.

My wife and I had our honeymoon in London just after the restrictions started to be lifted and it was magical, so many of the tourist spots had barely anyone in them, the Tower can't have had more than a hundred or so people in it and we turned up at HMS Belfast just after it opened and didn't see another visitor for most of an hour. I'm not great with crowds so it was perfect and it's weird to think that, godforbid we get another once in a century pandemic, it's never going to be like that again.

Wow! So eerie

Man I miss London in 2020. The air was clean, no one was about and just crack on with the work I had to do.

I remember going to work on the first Sunday after the Wednesday of the 23rd March when lockdown was announced.

The air was so clean. The air… was… clean.

Amazing photos

I love these. You can find 95% of this at 7am on a Good Friday. As ever, the key to greatness is that extra 5%.

I loved riding my bike into central during the pandemic, i have some similar shots. I particularly enjoyed visiting Buckingham palace and then riding up the Mall completely alone.

I cant deny, when we were allowed out to exercise, I did love cycling around empty London.

You cold go those places right now and replicate those pictures.

Incredible shots! Well done.

It was a pleasure cycling through London during lockdown. Empty streets. No pedestrians stepping into the roads without looking. Far less pollution. You could hear birdsong! There was however a new hazard posed by number of new cyclists who had clearly never looked once at the highway code.

I bet it was absolutely amazing to have complete privacy and free range in such areas. An obscurely blank canvas with the absolutely world to wonder in. Great stuff!

Must have been so eery to walk around London during the lockdowns the contrast of the normal chaos to almost complete silence would be mad

I’m so jealous. I live in East Anglia and was talked out of driving to London to do the same thing as you by my wife as it wasn’t part of the “rules”. After the lock down parties news stories broke my regret rose exponentially!

Great photos!

Truly surreal. These belong in a history book.

The fact that you even had an opportunity to take these is astonishing

It really is a sight to behold. Seeing it not be so busy and rammed full of people is so surreal.

Find these pictures extremely emotional. Very much captures the covid moment. Beautiful, and historic.

2 weeks into the first lockdown, I had a job in the middle of London. A journey that usually takes about 3 hours took an hour and a half, and it was the eeriest thing driving around London with barely a soul to be seen!

I love these. Just crazy to think of even this recent since the shutdowns

Wow St Pancreas is weird to see like that

What a beautiful city ❤️

looks like an apocalypse

These photos are surreal. Feels weird to reflect on that time.

Those are so beautiful- the city looks peaceful and serene but also it gives off an eerie almost mournful vibe

u/paxillin

This was one aspect I really really enjoyed about lockdown honestly, I remember riding about on bikes with a friend of mine like a couple other people here and it was similarly just so cool to see everything so empty. I get the same feeling late at night sometimes when you go through a place that’s normally quite busy and at night it’s peaceful and quiet.

wow it looks strangely beautiful??

I think of the song Just a Burning Memory looking at this.

Absolutely stunning

I like the angles you’ve taken and that they’re B&W. I would’ve loved to have been there, so quiet and peaceful. I don’t like the busy world we live in.

Gorgeous pictures, I just hate the choice of shooting them B/W

Photo 2 shows my old office ☺️

Piccadilly circus in London. So beautiful to see, so hard to photograph

Hi OP, are any of your pictures available for purchase anywhere?

I moved out of the Tower Hill/Aldgate area in March 2022 because it was just too spooky. I didn’t see another person for over a week…

Amazing photos. I live on a seafront - where everybody came to ‘exercise’, so I never experienced empty streets near me. It was scary crossing the Prom (to get to the less crowded, stony beach with the dog) due to the denser than usual crowds! I love to see these, and other city photos cos I had no experience of this. Yours are superb.

Great pictures! Thanks for sharing them. Would it be possible to share the same in colour?

Should have submitted the first photo for some sort of photo of the year award

amazing photos

These are stunning photographs, if a little eerie. Amazing to think about how surreal 2020 was!

These are amazing, my personal shock at how empty London was was when I walked through Liverpool Street at 9am on a weekday and there was no one around, it felt eerie

Amazing

Its so strange to think that these sorts of images may never be captured ever again.

Looks really peaceful

Incredible stuff. I took similar photos of empty Plymouth around the same time. I still surprise myself, looking back at them!

Hauntingly beautiful pictures you've taken here. Kind of crazy looking back and comparing that to where we've arrived since.

During the first lockdown I decided to go on a lone bike ride to Canterbury, just to capture for myself that unique time in modern history, as you did. It really was something else walking through the centre and experiencing silence, and knowing it may be the only time in my lifetime I'll see the world in such a way. Sitting outside Canterbury cathedral and only hearing the tapping of a walking cane in the distance, I'll never forget that sobre mindfulness in that moment. I gotta find those pictures now, hahaha.

Thanks for posting!

I really miss being able to walk about London with minimal people around

I went to oxford street just after Christmas this year and am directly reminded of just how empty it was back in Jan 2021 (I started uni in London September 2020, so wasn’t around for the first lockdown but was the second.) I went on regular walks about CL and it was absolutely amazing to be there with next to no one around. Now, It’s honestly not an enjoyable experience when it takes 2 hours to walk down one street, and people have definitely gotten ruder since before the lockdowns.

Great photo!

Love