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21 images Created 4 Dec 2020

Lockdown on a London park bench

2x1
London lockdown on a park bench.

During the lockdown2 in England the only place to meet friends and family outside your corona bubble in lockdown London was outside. With all pubs and restaurants closed many chose the nearest park bench to catch up, some bringing hot drinks, others a can of beer. Social distance rules demanded you could only meet one at a time, so meetings were more intimate even in the freezing cold.

Many work from home so meeting up outside was important to feel the world is still turning and many meet after hours and when it's dark. It is November and I use the light in the dark to capture these moments.

All photographs are taken in London Fields, East London.
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  • Kate and Mary<br />
Colleagues at Save the Children. They met 6 years ago in Wales, sharing a tent, on a work training weekend. <br />
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The last time they saw each other was in Marys back garden in South London, on the night before lockdown, 16 days ago. Kate is in bubble with her sister who lives nearby and Mary house share with one other plus a puppy but it is the first time they are out meeting anyone else. Part of Mary’s job was going on field trips across the world but that has stopped “my life has suddenly become very small”, she says. They both agree that there is less fear in the air now and that people have got used to the risk of catching Covid19.<br />
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When I leave they get back into catching up on work mates and the latest gossip.
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  • Conor and Rachel<br />
Conor and Rachel are on their first date, thanks to the dating app Hinge. They met by Victoria Park much earlier, which shut its gates by sunset so they have wandered far and wide to finally end up on this bench in London Fields. They were still laughing about their difficult beginning when I met them, so maybe they have a future together. He works in advertisement and she is a product manager for a company building websites. Rachel feels the pandemic and both lockdowns have slowed down the pace of working London and made everything feel more democratic. No one has ever tried this before and everyone has had to adjust and learn from each other how to function. Work life is less ‘show off’ and who you are and how you do things is more important. Everyone has got bigger and more important worries and considerations to take than just work and there is a huge understanding of that.  She hopes this will carry on after covid19 but is dreading the thought of rush hour when people again will fight their way on a train to save 2 minutes. Conor agrees and says the pandemic has stripped away city life as we know it and he really enjoys that London and the noise has stopped, at least momentarily. After a lot more insightful chat and laughter I leave them to their date and step into the dark to take their photograph.
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  • Sophie and Jessica. <br />
The two are both music students at British and Irish Inst of Modern Music. They live separately but near the bench which is a safe place for them to meet. They both feel corona and the lockdown is stunting their creative growth and Sophie feels the lockdown is claustrophobic. 'We got all this time but we can't fill it", she says.
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  • Jessica and Giacomo, both originally from Italy. <br />
She works in a nearby cafe, he is a PHD student in marine biology. The first lockdown was very tough on Giacomo. He was working from home all the time, very worried about his friends and family back in Milan where the virus was raging and worried about catching the virus himself. He was working from home all of September and his only social interaction was going to the café where Jessica works and that’s where they became friends. Both feel less scared and stressed out about this, the second lockdown, because they feel they now know better how to stay safe and what to expect. She lives nearby the café where she works and apart from all the corona safety measures put in place in the café and the fact it is take-way only, she is not too affected by the lockdown. Having learned from bad experience from the first lockdown, staying at home all the time for months, Giacomo now goes to work everyday which is half an hour walk each way to stay mentally sane. <br />
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“You have to accept this is the new normal and find a balance between staying safe from the virus and keeping your mental health”, Giacomo says.<br />
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It is the night before Jessica’s birthday and the two friends have been on a long walk, now taking a short break before heading home separate ways.
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  • Tom, accountant and Zoe, architect. <br />
They both bring mulled wine and got a 'best mulled wine' competition going. Tom lives with his brither who works from home, so their shared space is like an office. Zoe wokrs from hom and live with 3 flat mates, who are her bubble. To meet they have picked a park bench and broght warm drinks and Tom says it fun to work out ways to meet in psite of the pandemic and lockdown.
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  • Lee and Chris. <br />
Both work in film and theatre and their company is called Wet Paint / film and theatre.  <br />
Lee and Chris live together and go to the park and the bench to get fresh air and to feel the world is still there. Shortly before lockdown they had a show called Furious Holiday due to start in a night club in Kingsland Road, but that is now on hold. They were also working on the last stages of a film, but the camera man is now stuck in Italy and their sound man has barely been out of his flat since the first lockdown because of fears of corona. Sleeping is hard for Chris who now often wakes up in the middle of the night and has to get up to read and write because of his insomnia.
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  • Anne and Su<br />
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Anne is a history university student, originally from Oxford and Su, originally from the US studies social science. They used to live together but now lives in separate shared houses. <br />
Their house mates are now their bubble so they meet on a bench to catch up.<br />
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It is Saturday night and they have chosen to ‘go out for the night’ in London Fields because of it’s good vibes. Both of them spend most of their time at home, so its great to be out, even if it’s cold and on a park bench. All their course work happens via Zoom and it demands a lot of self discipline to keep up with the work. Anne really miss the social scene at Uni and the interactions between fellow students and tutors. To get to ‘see’ a tutor now you have to book a time slot online, whereas in Uni you could easily just knock on their door and see someone if you needed it any time.
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  • Max and JJ<br />
Max is a year 12 student at the nearby school and JJ is a music student at a university in Greenwich.<br />
The friends have met many times on this bench many times in the past, the bench is equidistant between their houses. They both find this lockdown harder, mainly because it gets dark so early and the cold.
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  • Ben and Megan<br />
Ben is a software engineer and Megan works in musical education.<br />
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It is their first date and after a long walk they enjoy a couple of drinks on a bench. <br />
Spurred on by lockdown Ben asked Megan out and even on a cold Sunday night a bench can be a warm place.<br />
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Living alone and working from home because of lockdown can be tough when the only physical social interaction is going to the shops. They both live according to lockdown rules but after having had a window of relative freedom over the summer and almost a year of Covid19 they both feel the fatigue many people feel about the pandemic. In spite of they both know people who has had, and survived, Covid19, both feel less scared now they have learned to live with the restrictions.
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  • Grace and Shane<br />
 Grace works for the homeless charity Crisis and Shane is a sales agent in the film industry.<br />
They have just finished dinner, pizza takeaway, after a long bike ride to Tate Britain and back. They are friends and live in separate house holds so dinner on a bench is the nearest they can get to ‘eating out’. All of Grace’s work is now done online. She runs workshops and training sessions for staff and homeless people (clients), all done remote. Most homeless are housed in temporary accommodation in hotels by the government and Crisis has been handing out smart phones to be able to communicate remote. <br />
Shane would normally be in LA at this time of year, in the sun, promoting up coming movies. He hasn’t been in dark and cold London for years and the short days are getting to him. <br />
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Lockdown is a lot less serious than the first time around and both find that lots of people are more irreverent this time. <br />
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After finishing off their pizza they head off, separate ways, home to warm up.
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  • Fanny and Jamie<br />
Both are in the music business, Jamie is a song writer, Fanny is a song writer and performing singer. They wrote a song together 1 ½ year ago called ‘Pretty Girls Are Never Lonely. They have met up to celebrate the song is finally coming out the following week and to catch up. Unlike the first lockdown music studios are allowed to operate as long as social distance rules are observed and both have been very busy working with other artists. Hackney is full of music studios and both have been able to work without having to travel too far.
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  • Ayla and Nuno<br />
The two know each other from working in the same coffee roastery in nearby Dalston Lane. The bench is the middle ground between their homes, Ayla lives in a house share, Nuno with his girl friend so the bench is the best place to meet. <br />
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Ayla now works in a different coffee roastery and is furloughed again, which she finds very frustrating. She feels deflated and like her career is put on pause during this lockdown. “I’m running out of wardrobe items to upcycle and dystopian novels to escape through’, she says. <br />
Ayla is from New Zealand and had planned to go home for the first time in 3 years back in March but that trip was cancelled because of lockdown1.  She had entertained the idea to go home at Christmas but she can’t afford the 2 weeks of isolation she would face in New Zealand, so now she does not know when she will make it back to visit family, 3 ½ years on. Nuno is from Portugal and has not been back since before the pandemic. He does not like the idea of travelling much with the virus all around, so he stays mostly in and around Hackney. Both find lockdown2 much easier to cope with but they both look forward to a shot of Dolly Parton’s vaccine.
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  • Henry and Ming<br />
The two friends know each other from college, Henry now works a consultant, Ming as a researcher. Henry works from home and it can feel a bit like being trapped, being in all day, so so meeting up on a bench is feels good. Ming has got family and the only way to meet up with his friend for a beer is outside.
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  • Hardip and Marra<br />
The two know each other from way back through mutual friends.<br />
Hardip was a freelance product designer hot desking around various coffee shops in Hackney, then got employed and began working out of an office. This has now turned into working from home just as hard as if the world wasn’t crumbling.  Meeting up with Marra is a way to get out of the flat after a long day inside, having a ‘date’ helps to get you out the door. Life is much less hectic now which is a good thing and you wont suffer from FUMO ( Fear Of Missing Out) because of the general lockdown, says Hardip. Marra works as a manager in a coffee shop which is open for business, take-away only. Covis19 means she has had to adjust the way the coffee shop runs according to rules, over the summer they had half the tables out and now none, but being able to do take-away means she takes the same as in summertime. The spring lockdown was the best time in her life. She was furloughed and had time for mindfulness, yoga, to relax and just be happy. Hardip feels she’ll be leaving 2020 in a better mental state than when the pandemic hit back in March, more relaxed and less worried on a personal level, she has reconnected with family and friends in a way she’s has never done before which has been important to her.
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  • Callum and Harvey.<br />
Callum works in marketing, Harvey in social media, both work from home. <br />
Callum has come a 20 min bike ride from home and it's great to be out after a long day staring at a screen and being on continuous skype calls. They know each other from their student days and have a wide circle of friends they would usually hang out with over dinner and drinks. This is their first time together in weeks and it's good to be out, even on a park bench. They both know people who have had Covid19, and survived and Callum knows 3-4 friends who now suffer from slow Covid. The pandemic has meant everything has had to be re-prioritised and even though it's harder to meet, Harvey finds family and friends are more important now.
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  • Dan and Danie.<br />
Lovers on their way home. They have been out on a bike ride, he had a puncture, so decided to take a beer break on a bench before walking home. Danie works for Green New Deal from home and finds it very frustrating. Green New Deal is a campaign group set up to fight climate change but it is very hard to organise anything online and with the pandemic, climate change issues have been put aside by most. Even the annual international COP has had to be postponed in spite of climate change being an emergency. It is hard to keep motivated and Danie feels deflated and flat. Dan works as a 6.th form teacher. His school has only recently started having the students coming in because they were not ready to teach safely.  Teaching remote has made it very hard for Dan to know if his students actually understood his teaching, sitting behind a screen it is very hard not to ‘drop out’. Now that they are back in school he can see how badly behind many of the students are and he can see how important face to face teaching and physical relationships are.
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  • Riccardo and Francesco.<br />
Riccardo is a fashion stylist and Francesco and fashion photographer. They both have studios nearby but have their business meeting on the bench, discussing work and ideas. Lockdown has meant not many shoots are happening and Riccardo is spending too much time in the house. Francesco thinks the first lockdown was great but this one is boring and now he cooks a lot.
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  • Winnie and Charles<br />
The two are on their first date and have only just met. They got a bag of snacks and cans of soft drinks. She is a research scientist; he is an investment banker. She goes to work every day; she works in a lab and she can’t do that from home. He works from home which suits him, its all screen based work anyway. He would usually be going to expensive restaurants and bars but because everything is shut they have had to meet on a park bench which he says feels much less pressured. They are not sure what to do for food, if they decide to go on, so I recommend the local fish&chip takeaway in Broadway Market and leave them to it.
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  • Marcus and Paul.<br />
Their friendship goes back 30 years to their college days in Sheffield. <br />
They have kept in touch over the years and meet up regularly. Paul has found that being in his fifties he doesn’t actually need the hustle and bustle of a pub, a park bench is just fine. ‘The world is going crazy’, Paul says, ‘with the pandemic and Brexit around the corner, plenty to worry about these days’.
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  • Hermione and Jack<br />
Hermione and Jack are on their first date and have only just met. The bench is cold but she wisely brought hot drinks and two hot water bottles. She is an interior design assistant and he a civil servant. The first lockdown was much more stressful when everyone feared getting the virus or spreading it but now most people know how to be safe, or at least feel safe, Jack says. Hermione is very aware of the guild she would feel if she should infect anyone, including old relatives so she is very careful who she sees and how. Jack feels people have got more time for each other, which is great but he does miss the energy of nightlife before lockdown.
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