Is everywhere much more crowded since Covid?

[ArseInTheCoOpWindow]

I know it’s in the past etc etc. l live near a national park. It seems much fuller since lockdown. Loads of camper vans squeezed into tiny roadsides.

Yesterday we tried to go for a walk. Roads were just horrendous. Traffic jams, loads of traffic. Drove past a pub that’s nearly always empty. The car park was rammed to bursting and cars were parked on the sides for about 1/4 mile down the road.

Ive lived her a long time ( very long time) l don’t think I’ve ever seen it like this before. Not even in midsummer. We gave up and came home. I know we were adding to it, but it was just impossible.

I think it's a mixture of things. People can visit outdoor places and it's free or cheaper. Having said that, we've been to a sporting event today where tickets cost £35 each (we got free due a booking problem😂) - it was heaving inside and out, and we found ourselves wanting to be outside as it no longer appeals being in a hot crowded room, being pushed around - this is something we'd have actually accepted before lockdown.

We live in a seaside town and went for a walk today. Absolutely rammed. It's busier and busier every time I go. Dogs everywhere. Often off lead going mental. Dog shit everywhere. Kids everywhere and harassed parents trying to keep up with them. Really noisy. Angry people trying to park. It was really unenjoyable and it seems to get worse every year.

Went to I Borough Market on 30th and although I expected busy it was rammed. DD lives in London and hated it. We are ex London and haven’t seen it like that in a while.

It's nothing to do with population increase. The population has decreased because of Brexit.

I don’t think that’s true - according to this link, the UK population has risen every year since Brexit (and for several decades before Brexit too) and is at an all-time high of almost 68 million.

https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/GBR/united-kingdom/population

There are over 1 million more people in the UK than there were in 2019 and incidentally, almost 10 million more people here today than in 2000. I don’t think population increase is the only reason that places feel busier, but it is probably one of them?

I think there's just too many people in a finite space.

I'm near London and everything is just constantly rammed. Car journeys that used to take 20 minutes are now more like 40 minutes. Add in roadworks and it's 1 hour plus - this happens almost every week.

Shops are so quiet since covid though, as are the social evenings I attend.

But l do t find this either!

Bloody IKEA is rammed. As is The Range

We must be living on a different planet!

I find the outdoor places so much busier. I live near a NT beauty spot that was always busy in summer and bank holidays. Now if I go to have a walk on a dreary mid Nov Sunday the parking is rammed and it's heaving! This would never have happened pre Covid.
We also used to be able to go to a local pub for tea last minute but now everywhere seems to have to be booked well ahead even for mid week. I suppose a lot of pubs have closed so there is less choice for people.
My friend went to a popular large ish bonfire night ticketed and she couldn't even get in the grounds.
It's stopped me doing some outings.

Yes I’m not sure about a population decrease

I wonder if there are publicly available National Trust or English Heritage stats about this.

Far too many people in England now and we invite hundreds of thousands more every year

I’ve just looked for trends for Nt and EH, but can’t find much.

Ds went to a popular place near us today. It’s always pretty busy on NYD. They’d run out of food at 2.30 pm, and closed the cafe.

Nevet known that before.

I wonder if some of it is due to the decline of town centres and shopping centres. In the past people would go into town, wander around the shops - department stores, toy shops, clothes shops- and then have lunch, go to the cinema. Now the department stores have closed and town centres are depressing.

Add to that the people who discovered walking and a pub lunch during Covid and you’ve got a busy countryside.

It's been very mild this week (on the days not raining) everyone probably just decided to go for an outing on the same day. I do think people "discovered" the countryside during lockdown to some extent but it's mainly the obviously popular places.

I would say social media. People spent all their time during COVID watching reels about ‘most beautiful’ and ‘best kept secret’ places and then used their new found freedom after lockdown to go and explore. Which is great in lots of ways.

However, there isn’t space for everyone everywhere all at once. I live in a beauty spot and was just discussing ticketing with someone the other day. Obviously this would be free and just a lottery to try to keep things reasonable. There has recently been a lot of property destruction, attacks on livestock, antisocial behaviour etc cause by over tourism. Our last village event (very traditional been done for centuries) was so crowded that it was bordering on unsafe. People pushed and shoved to get their social media photos, nearly ruined the entire thing and then surged into the very few pubs so they were carnage too.

I was talking to DH about Venice charging tourists to keep the numbers down and saying something like that would eventually happen in the U.K.

I’ve found this too, we have cycled and hiked our local area for 15+ years and pre-Covid it’s always been pretty quiet but post-covid it’s always busy. Christmas events, cinema and restaurants are the same; they are positively bustling. It’s at odds with a cost of living crisis though.