Has the UK ever been in lockdown before Covid?

[MyLifeNow20]

Just intrigued to know if we have ever been in a lockdown prior to Covid?

During the war?

Wonder if the closest thing was during the war and blackouts/curfews?

Not sure how much every day life was curtailed with the Spanish flu in 1916 but they did wear masks then

Yes, during the war and during the Spanish flu. It’s quite a privileged position to think this is something that’s never happened before, because it’s, of course, happened in other countries in our lifetimes, but not in the UK. I work in infectious diseases and these measures are not unusual in places that experience more novel infectious diseases than we usually see here.

I guess the question is firstly, whether by lockdown you mean a law enacted by central government and enforced by the police and courts, which would only really have been possible for the last couple of hundred years. And secondly, whether you mean UK as in the the political entity, or in the geographical area it covers. Certainly the authorities locking down plague houses and removing infected people was a thing which happened in London during the black death of 1665-6, and in other bouts of plague.

RULES AND ORDERS
To be observed by all Justices of Peace, Mayors, Bayliffs, and other Officers,
for prevention of the spreading of the Infection of the PLAGUE.
Published by His Majesties Special Command. ..
[Orders 1-5 say that no stranger was allowed to enter a town unless they had a certificate of health. No furniture was to be removed from an infected house. There were to be no public gatherings such as funerals and all houses were to be kept clean.]
… …

1. That Fires in moveable Pans, or otherwise, be made in all necessary publique [public] Meetings in Churches, &c. and convenient Fumes to correct the Air be burnt thereon.

1. That care be taken that no unwholsom Meats, stinking Fish, Flesh, musty Corn, or any other unwholesome Food be exposed to sale in any Shops or Markets.

1. That no Swine, Dogs, Cats or tame Pigeons be permitted to pass up and down in Streets, or from house to house, in places Infected.

1. That the Laws against Inn-Mates be forthwith put in strict execution, and that no more Alehouses be Licensed then are absolutely necessary in each City or place, especially during the continuance of this present Contagion.

10. That each City and Town forthwith provide some convenient place remote from the same, where a pesthouse, huts, or sheds may be erected, to be in readiness in case any Infection should break out; which if it shall happen to do, That able and faithful Searchers and Examiners be forthwith provided and Sworn to Search all suspected bodies, for the usual signs of the plague, viz. Swellings or Risings under the Ears or Arm-pits, or upon the Groynes [groin]; Blains, Carbuncles, or little Spots, either on the Breast or back, commonly called Tokens.

11. That if any House be Infected, the sick person or persons be forthwith removed to the said pest-house, sheds, or huts, for the preservation of the rest of the Family: And that such house (though none be dead therein) be shut up for fourty days, and have a Red Cross, and Lord have mercy upon us, in Capital Letters affixed on the door

From here: www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/education/plague.pdf

Quarantine is normally for those who are infected, not for those who arent

We’ve actually been really lucky in terms of real adversity during our lifetimes.

Yes there was a lockdown during the bubonic plague in the 1600s and Isaac Newton came up with some of his best ideas during isolation if I remember correctly.

Not sure how true it was, but didn't Shakespeare write King Lear while in isolation? I'm sure I read that at the start of the pandemic.

I've never seen such nasty fearmongering tactics.
Very much helped with the internet, social media etc.

Probably not in the way we have but then they just let everyone die in the past and got on with it. You decide which is best.

This is a really interesting article about a localised smallpox outbreak in Birmingham and the local lockdown in the 1970s www.theguardian.com/science/2020/nov/21/it-was-a-total-invasion-the-virus-that-came-back-from-the-dead

You should read a little about Eyam. They went into lockdown to avoid the plague and survived. Fascinating.

I have Daniel defoes book about the plague in London
He was 5 when it broke out and the gentry had to have travel documents in order to stay at coaching inns, enter towns, leave london

Covid passports anyone?

The Venetian Republic also used to quarantine arrivals on one of the islands in the canals. I think that's where the word comes from- 14 days- quattor/ quattordici- quarantine.

@GenuinelyItIs
There were a lot of deaths in Ryan
They didn’t all survive
Many lost most of their families
There was a very heavy energy about the place
Both me and my 14 year old dd felt it
We were going to eat lunch there and she said she didn’t want to
We scarpered
I hope it’s had some healing done on it since we were there 30 years ago as it needed it

Not the UK, but there was a 4 day lockdown in Brussels in 2015, following terrorist attacks in Paris.

Eyam went into lockdown to contain the plague, I thought? The villagers had it and they wanted to prevent other places getting it.

A Parcel of Patterns by Jill Paton Walsh was a staple designated reading book at school in the 80s

Eyam even
Plaques on the houses saying who died I don’t think helps

Ah, was it the other way about? Sorry about that!

Plague in 1664/5 had restrictions

Typhoid, closed down Aberdeen for a while

@GenuinelyItIs

You should read a little about Eyam. They went into lockdown to avoid the plague and survived. Fascinating.

You have that totally back to front. When plague arrived in Eyam the village voluntarily isolated to protect other communities from infection. Nobody was allowed in or out. It was an act of brave self-sacrifice. Far from avoiding and surviving the plague, 260 Eyam inhabitants died of plague, three-quarters of the village population.

As soon as I saw the thread title, I thought of Eyam.

There was a typhoid one in aberdeen in 1964.