Report From London

Hyde Park

Report From London

I’m about to finish up a week in London…well, not London as I knew it or you knew it.  This London has empty streets and no queues for anything, including a pint at the pub.

Time of day when the lobby is usually crowded.  Breakfast room was nearly the same.

This morning, at 0900, I went downstairs to breakfast.  The expansive breakfast room is about the size of a large restaurant, with a décor that rivals any elegant dining room.  Deep carpets. Large paintings adoring the walls. Carefully prepared place settings on fifty tables all featuring designs of inlaid wood.  Dozens of staff in black and white livery.   It was that way on the first morning I was here, with lines in front of the two coffee machines and kitchen staff dodging through oblivious patrons to restock the rapidly depleted buffet.  Fresh fruits attractively arrayed and cold cuts and cheeses, and abundant hot dishes to please every ethnicity.

This morning, there were five of us, plus me.  Soon two of them left.  Only saw two staff and one of them just came in as I sat down with a plate of fried eggs, English back bacon, sausages, and baked beans, plus a full cup of rich Americano coffee.  Also this morning’s newspaper, from the entryway for the taking. The food was all there, the people not.

On the walk back to the elevators, beautifully tiled floors, and elevator doors of heavy brass, all nicely polished….I passed not a single hotel guest. A glance at the elegant front desk showed no one, except three staff dressed in black suits, white shirts and black ties, apparently sharing a chuckle or two.

The past few days have seen the city shut down.  Theater performances cancelled,  Prime Minister Boris Johnson calling for avoidance of large gatherings, including those in pubs.  Those I stopped in were nearly empty….yes, you see there are some things even the stoic English are not inclined to give up without being threatened by bayonets.  So the pubs are still open and I’m still able to get my pint of London Pride, or London Glory, or Dooms Bar, three of my tasty favorites.

Most stores are still open, even the flock of block after block of what Americans would call Mom and Pop operations.  But, there are few to no customers.  Shopkeepers lean languidly in the doorways, hoping for the best and curiously enjoying the occasional pigeon. 

Pub near Harrods

Another shot near Harrods.  Usually the crowds are thick here.

Still, walking the streets is enjoyable.  Yesterday I walked some seven miles through and around Hyde Park…no, there is no Jekyll Park…through Trafalgar Square and Leicester Square and Covent Garden.  Went into The National Portrait Gallery, between Trafalgar and Leicester and viewed a few canvases in what these days is a cavernous hugeness devoid of patrons.  The good news was, I could stand and stare for as long as I wanted without being considered rude.

Trafalgar Square

Well-dressed attendants, attired in the popular English uniform colors, black and white, sat lazily in chairs, carefully guarding the paintings and waiting for me to leave and stop interrupting their naps.

Leicester Square, as the hub of the theater district, is normally the busiest spot in London. Leicester is also at the confluence of Piccadilly, Covent Garden, and Trafalgar.  One of my favorite ‘after theater’ restaurants is on a corner, near the tube stop.  It’s sizeable, probably thirty tables, serving Italian and Turkish specialties.  Five or six gorgeous Eastern European ladies normally scurry around, efficiently delivering trays piled high with plates of pizza, spaghetti, and Doner Kababs.

Yesterday, the place was totally empty.  One waitress stood, leaning against a wall, showing extreme interest in her fingernails.

Tube stations at Leicester and Covent Garden, and Piccadilly are normally the scenes of bustling hordes.  Yesterday, they were nearly empty.  And, I’d been trying to do what the Prime Minister asked and avoid crowds.  Turned out, avoiding crowds meant taking the tubes.  Five people were on my car on the Piccadilly Line.

And was the famous Hyde Park empty as well?  I’m sure your rapidly boiling curiosity is uncontainable.  The answer is a polite yes and no.

In the vastness of the green, heavily treed open space, there were a few mothers pushing trams, and some people walking dogs and others like me, asking themselves, “What the hell am I doing here?”

Kids and their mom feed the swans at Round Pond in Hyde Park

In truth, it was a part of my get-the-hell-out-of-my-hotel-room regimen, including walking and thinking and deciding whether to do some idle shopping, or go back to the room and read a book.

Still, London is London, one of the most fabulous cities in the world, with cross cultures and cultural possibilities unimaginable in most other cities.  I found a French grocery store and purchased some French sea salt, but being a bit perplexed by the varieties available and desperate to put my French lessons on naked display, I held up two boxes of salt and asked the clerk, “Voulez-vous me dire, les deux sont la même chose?”

“Yes,” he replied in English, “They’re both salt.”

I bought both. My French suffers from severe restrictions, a prominent one being able to find out what I want to know. Anyway, we both had a good laugh….well, one of us did, the native French speaker.

And so I walked on.  Had a pint of London Pride near Trafalgar Square, gandered at the Lamborghini and Ferrari showrooms, and avoided the crowds, only because there weren’t any.

Museum of Natural Science, normally packed!

A heavy traffic area, Trafalgar Square