I’ve been in London a fair bit over the Olympic fortnight. It has by and large seemed fairly quiet but finished with a bang with the Marathon in the centre of town and the Blur gig in Hyde Park, of which more later.
The two pics on the right show Covent Garden piazza a couple of days apart. The first is a photo taken at 11am of where the buskers usually do their stuff. Pretty empty.
The second is at lunchtime on the next day. Huge difference. Maybe it’s the couple of hours that made the difference or that everyone was at the games on Friday and they
then came into London to watch the Marathon on Saturday.
We shall probably never find out and actually I doubt anyone cares.
I gave the busker we watched the previous week a fiver. Seemed reasonable. He gave us a long show and we enjoyed it.
3 replies on “what a difference a day makes”
We went to Covent Garden last Saturday to go to the Olympic Journey exhibition, and it was eerily quiet at around 10.30-11am. Was busier about an hour later, but still, nothing compared to when we have previously visited.
how was the Olympic journey exhibition btw? there was a huge queue when I walked by.
Hi Tref –
Central London has been a quiet as a mouse!
Leaving NNG at 07:05 – the train has been quiet, once of the train at KGX at 08:35 getting down to the tube a breeze. On the tube (Victoria Line) – easy to get on and even got a seat a few times – no standing under someone armpit. No queue at my local coffee shop for my morning wake up shot of caffeine.
Guys i work with have all reported the same thing coming in from all corners of London and surrounding areas. There was a piece in the Evening Standard saying that some shops/restaurants/coffee shops had closed their door until the games were over due to lack of trade.
Seems Boris and co did a great job and scared everyone away – of course just await the huge media outburst saying what a success the games were for London and the UK. The real cost will never be told.
BE.