How busy is London right now?

[Flowerpower23]

Me and dd going for her birthday next week to see frozen/do Hyde park etc. How busy is it currently (if you live there or have been in the center recently)? I don’t think it will be locked down or I hope not anyhow!

Sorry, that was in reference to Wheeliebins the rabid Londoner zombies running up and down oxford street 🤣

@VaguelyInteresting

Was there at the weekend.

Not as busy as usual (used to live near Kensington Gardens, now only there infrequently) but still v busy compared to other places.

Word of warning- travel was hellish on Sunday night with dozens of trains cancelled. A 2 hour journey home took 7, on rammed trains that were diverted Willy nilly. the train guard told me he expected it would be the same every weekend until NY and advised me not to travel again (had my son with me).

I’m taking his advice and not going back now for the time being

@VaguelyInteresting are you south or north? I’m travelling from the north west so this does worry me. I don’t think I’ll be able to get the tickets rearranged to a different date or a hotel refund now unless they themselves cancel it?

We were on a walk from Tower Bridge to Waterloo Bridge last weekend (South Side) and it was packed! We live in South London, so know what to expect.

Even during lockdown last year, riverside walks were mobbed especially the stretch between Tower Bridge and the South Bank. It's always packed there!

Op I'm in the same quadnry.

Also have a meal booked what's upsetting me is why... Do shows cancel at the last moment?
When do they do their testing??
People like us making a huge gamble and effort to "travel in" risking ourselves on public transport, get all the way there and its cancelled?? ".

I don't know what to do.

Imdreamingofapeacefulxmas I don't think the shows will be waiting until last minute to cancel performances, it's more likely someone either suddenly develops symptoms or gets notification of being a close contact – we all know how utterly unpredictable this situation is. You say yourself it's a risk coming to London right now and you're right – it's a huge one, getting worse by the day. Cases are soaring here in every age group except children, and the 25 fastest growing outbreaks of anywhere in the country are all in London right now. Frankly, I think anyone would be mad to "travel in" as you put it. I live here and am staying safe indoors!

So busy that I got covid 😂

Even the staff don’t know from one day to the next half the time.

@Flowerpower23

Am north. X

I live in London and as much as I want to encourage the support of businesses, I wouldn't visit right now. Yes, it's still lovely and Christmassy but cases are spiralling – where I live they've doubled in just a couple of days. Omicron is the dominant variant now and if you get it, your Dec 25th is buggered, not to mention you'll be taking it back to where you live. I struggle to see why anyone would think it's worth the risk right now.

Agree.
It's busy. Lots of out of towners milling around seemingly intent on trying to prove you can't catch covid in a crowd. Chris Whitty's warning is meaningless to them.

urbanbuddha Of the 77k cases recorded across the whole of the UK yesterday, 19k were recorded in London. That's a quarter of all cases. It's so bad here.

my dm is planning to take a taxi from one train station to another rather than a tube.
hope she is safe

I reckon it will get a lot less busier this weekend as loads of people will head "home"!

I was in central London last night and it was very quiet and a bit depressing. I am supposed to be taking DD to the ENB's Nutcracker next week but who knows.

Gosh I really don’t know what to do. Wondering whether to leave it and hope the performance gets cancelled so I can rearrange my tickets and not lose out on the money. I’ve just cancelled dds birthday party for Sunday due to covid so it seems silly to then take her down to London.

Lots of out of towners milling around seemingly intent on trying to prove you can't catch covid in a crowd. Chris Whitty's warning is meaningless to them.

This!! All the Londoners I know (including myself) have cancelled their pre-Christmas plans. It's the out-of-towners who seem to be sticking their heads in the sand.

@Flowerpower23

Gosh I really don’t know what to do. Wondering whether to leave it and hope the performance gets cancelled so I can rearrange my tickets and not lose out on the money. I’ve just cancelled dds birthday party for Sunday due to covid so it seems silly to then take her down to London.

Only you can make that choice but, like HundredMilesAnHour said, everyone I know who lives here has cancelled plans to go into the centre. Me and OH were supposed to be going in tonight for dinner but we've scrapped it. We're also postponing taking DD to cinema this weekend because it's spreading so fast. A third of her class was off yesterday because a family member has tested positive (we didn't send her in).

Hold your horses anyone planning to come to London this weekend – they've just confirmed there's going to be a Tube strike, starting tonight and lasting 36 hours. You would be crazy to travel in now, it's going to be horrendous!

The tube strikes have been on the last few weekends. There was one the weekend I cam down. It made dd's life very difficult as there was only 1 train every half hour to get her home after work.

I was in the West End, and would describe it as busy, but not usual pre-Christmas levels

I think people are sticking local, but out-of-town visitors still head for the centre

Comefromaway Have there? I didn't realise, because we've been staying away from the centre and I've always WFH anyway. What a nightmare for your DD. I hate the Tube at the best of times, I can't bear it when it's packed.

Surprised at people saying it's busy. It was a few weeks ago, but I thought it was pretty dead last night.

On the Tube strikes, talks have stalled so it looks as if they will be going ahead.

Five lines affected: Victoria, Central, Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly. Winding down from 19:00 today (strike starts at 20:30) and striking all day tomorrow. That plus omicron sick leave could very disrupted services.

Info here (which I guess will be updated if they pull a rabbit out of a hit after all)

tfl.gov.uk/campaign/tube-strike?cid=tube-strike

The last lot of strikes she finished work later than usual as there was a delay to the start of the show. So it meant she'd missed the last overground train from Paddington which is her usual back up. She lives on the central line which was affected. The tube that did come was rammed, then some low life grabbed her bottom (she did report it but the train was too crammed to identify anyone on cctv)

Loads of tourists (U.K. and abroad), god knows how they will be getting 4 foot high goofy looking cuddly toys home (from the wonderland). Plus the usual surge of people coming over for Christmas.

I had a delivery guy drop something off today and he said that the roads were quiet.

Comefromaway Oh that is awful. Your poor DD. Glad she reported it, even if they couldn't trace him. The more crimes like that which are reported, the more TfL have to address the problem.