Silence shrouds London's deserted midnight party land

At midnight, silence shrouds London’s party land.

The packed streets and teeming bars that have tended to the nocturnal needs of drunken poets, louche musicians and revellers seeking adventure have been left desolate by the coronavirus lockdown.

From the pubs of London’s West End to the hedonistic nightclubs of Shoreditch, the fun has departed the British capital, at least for now.

Gone is humanity: the crowds, the diners, the drunks, the bewildered tourists, the opera aficionados, the watchful doormen, the lovers snatching an elicit embrace.

Soho’s rainbow flags flutter above deserted bars, massage parlours lie dark and neon signs outside shuttered sex shops offer fantasies but nothing more.

London at night is deserted as never before. The big screens of Piccadilly Circus flash at nothing but a few ducks from the nearby royal park waddling nonchalantly past the fountain pool.

A solitary bell tolls, usually inaudible above the din, echoing along John Nash’s elegant Regent Street. Empty red bus follows empty red bus.

Like many other cities, London is now looked after by just a skeleton staff: bus drivers in masks, police officers, the odd food delivery cyclist and street cleaners.

Homeless people find life even harder than it was.

A 19-year-old heroin addict, who asked not to be named, was sleeping rough on the streets of Europe’s richest city. She said she found it hard to get money and had nowhere else to go.

“London is dead - it’s goodnight London,” said Darryl Wainwright, 40, who has been homeless for nearly two years. “It is weird. It is crazy. I cannot understand it. I have never seen London like this.”