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COVID-19 after lockdown

Battersea’s walking routes return to tranquility

By Georgios Vasilopoulos

September 6^th, 2020

Working in a hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic has not been without challenges. In a simplistic way, one of the key functions of my job is to understand and translate the concepts and directives of professionals—from disciplines such as general medicine, virology, immunology and infection control—into easily-digestible public health, safety and morale-boosting materials.

I think working in healthcare gives you a certain disconnect to anything health-related, for better or worse, even when there isn’t a global pandemic underway. You see firsthand how all manner of health conditions can affect people and take measures to stay safe—but there’s a certain ingrained acceptance that there’s not a lot you can do beyond those measures. That worrying about something you cannot control is wasting energy better placed being kind to yourself and trying to help positively shift the perspectives of others who are genuinely afraid.

While the pandemic was in full swing, I found it troubling to witness its effects on the normally vibrant and happy clinicians around me—some of whom have been my colleagues for more than fifteen years. Many became almost empty shells of themselves, like their spirits had been ripped away. From caring for extremely poorly patients. From exhaustion—physical and mental. I found this aspect of the pandemic the most difficult to process.

To wind down, I drew, wrote and exercised as often as I could. I believe, in future, we will look back at those days as a time when artwork of all kinds flourished, either as a way to cope with quarantine and isolation, or as escapism from the workplaces of those of us whose jobs were classified as ‘essential services’.

During lockdown, London felt unnervingly abandoned. Shops were boarded up. Roads were empty. The normally 20-minute taxi ride to work took 7 minutes. The only place that you’d regularly run into other people was on the walking routes—London’s comprehensive network of pedestrian paths—as people took advantage of their 30-minute daily exercise allocation. If not for actual exercise, at least to get out of their homes briefly for some fresh air. And the air was fresh—with nearly no traffic, pollution levels dropped to all-time lows. This was the first spring I can remember that I didn’t suffer hay fever.

On some days, the walking routes were crowded, particularly along the Thames. Some wearing masks, others unconcerned. Solo people, families and the odd group of friends flouting the law. And, particularly at the beginning, everyone side-eyeing each other as they passed by.

As lockdown began to ease at the end of June and shops reopened, the crowds moved back to the high streets. The walking routes which had been bustling with activity returned to their former tranquility. Walking along—as I did on a Saturday afternoon in early September, armed with my trusty camera and an ultra-wide lens—you would almost be fooled into thinking the city was still in full lockdown. Yet, in one of the most densely populated cities in the westernised world, the peace and quiet had become soothing now, rather than unnerving.