Today is another dull grey and damp day. We went out earlier than usual in order to avoid the rain that was forecast for later. Despite the weather, the streets were fairly busy.

Daring blackbird
Photo by Tigger

We took a stroll down St John Street and one of the first notable sights was this blackbird. He was perched right here on the pavement chirping his defiance of passers-by. We were able to approach within a couple of paces of him without disturbing his aplomb.This is another indication of how the wildlife is responding to the lockdown with increased boldness.

Sainsbury’s Local open for business

This branch of Sainsbury’s Local was open and doing a busy trade. It wasn’t obvious whether people were trying to keep to the distancing. rules In any case, in shops like this, the shelves are set so close together that it is practically impossible to do so.

Entrance, City University

We passed in front of the St John Street campus of the City University. The place was locked up tight, as you might expect. I imagine it will be quite some time before it once again opens its doors to its students.

Finsbury Library

Opposite is the local branch of the public library and local history museum. Members with an Internet connection can borrow ebooks from the library but, by the same token, many will have found other sources of books both to buy and to download free from sites such as Gutenberg and EpubBooks. The public libraries were already having to reinvent themselves in the Internet era and it remains to be seen how much damage a prolonged closure will do to them.

Shops and launderette

In this small shopping precinct, only two establishments were open, a Nisa supermarket (at the far end) and the launderette. These are being allowed to continue operating during the lockdown.

This was the terminus of today’s walk and from here we retraced our steps.

Barber’s with rotating sign

I noticed this barber’s shop because, although it was closed, its stripey sign was rotating. In normal times this would only be the case if the establishment were open. Did they leave it on by accident or did they set it going on purpose as a sign of hope for the future?

Danger: Men at work!

Building work has been allowed to continue during the lockdown as evidenced by this small construction site. There were just two men working.

At the Angel crossroads

We paused at the Angel crossroads where I once again photographed our favourite local building with its doomed tower. Beside it is another tower which may once have held a bell… or possibly not. (I must remember to try to find out!)

Traffic

I took the preceding photo while the ltraffic lights were red. When they changed there was a busy rush of traffic both vehicular and pedestrian. It’s impossible to know whether all these folk are making “necessary journeys”.

Jusaka, open for takeaways

As I previously mentiond (see Jusaka reopens!) our friends at the Jusaka juice and coffee bar have reopened but for takeaway trade only. So we bought our coffee here today before turning for home.

Update

The second tower or turret in the photo entitled At the Angel crossroads belongs to the old Angel Picture House which opened in 1913 and closed in 1972. A very informative article on its history will be found here: The Angel Picture Theatre, 7 Islington High Street, Islington.

As far as I can tell, the tower never held a bell!