Lockdown has ended and we are now living in a world of Tiers. London has been placed in Tier 2, the “High Alert” Tier. Depending on where you live, you may be in a lower or even a higher Tier. If you want an authoritative guide to how the country is divided among the Tiers and what the rules are for each, then the Government’s own guv.uk site is your best bet.

Penton Street

We struck off along Penton Street – whose name, along with that of the Pentonville area (including the prison), derives from Henry Penton (1736–1812), MP and property developer. The weather was cold and grey, and I kept my hands in my coat pockets except when taking photos.

Shops are open

The first novelty, after a month of closure, was to find the shops open, not just those selling food and “essentials” but any and all shops.

Fashion boutique
Photo by Tigger

The fashion boutique is open for business and so is the wedding gown emporium…

Wearing a visor

…where it amused us to see that this dummy was wearing a visor, unlike this one…

No face, no visor…

…but as she doesn’t have a face either, I suppose it doesn’t matter.

Chapel Market (Penton Street end)

We entered Chapel Market at the Penton Street end. It looked pretty empty but, then, the market never does reach this far.

Indian Veg Buffet

At numbers 92-3 you find Indian Veg, a vegetarian buffet that I would perhaps describe as quietly famous. It has already survived a quarter of a century so must be doing something right. As well as being a restaurant it vigorously promotes vegetarianism and ethical living. I don’t think it has a website but here is a review by the Independent.

Decorated doors

Our attention was caught by these decorated shop doors. I don’t think they are actually stained glass though they almost look as if they are. Can you guess what business is transacted within? It’s a tattoo shop. In case you are wondering, no, I have no tattoos and in fact dislike the whole idea. I find the current fad for tattoos incomprehensible and the tattoos themselves disfiguring of the wearer.

Chapel Market – the first stalls

Further along the street, we came upon the first market stalls. In streets like Chapel Market, there is a kind of symbiosis between the stalls and the fixed shops. I’m sure the latter do more trade on market days as customers move between both.

Christmas trees

Once again, the Christmas trees were out in force. This stall had nothing but Christmas trees and some of the other stalls, selling other goods, also had trees. Market traders are adaptable folk!

Costa Coffee

I was curious to see the Costa Coffee shop as the Tier 2 rules seem to me undefined regarding coffee shops. Anyway, they were open and customers were allowed to sit inside. Well, now we know for our future outings.

Like old times…

We walked the length of the market and, as my caption says, it was like old times. There were stalls all the way down and no gaps. Most of the familiar weekday stalls were there, well stocked and ready for business.

The Angel crossroads

We walked on down to the Angel crossroads which proved to be very busy. Traffic was quite heavy in all directions. You might be able to spot our destination just across the road!

Jusaka

Yes, it’s Jusaka, our favourite local coffee place. Actually, it describes itself as a juice bar but our interest is strictly focused on the coffee!

We could sit in

Here too the tables had been set out once more and we were able to sit in and drink our coffee here in leisurely fashion instead of dashing home with it.

The easing of restrictions, though slight, is welcome but we are still in a dangerous situation and it may be necessary to impose lockdown again if cases of infection soar again as they have done before.

If the vaccines prove to be as effective as is claimed, then we can begin to hope to see the end of the pandemic in the not too distant future but there is yet a long way to go before that outcome is achieved. It behoves us all to be patient and to behave sensibly. The weak link in the progress towards success is, as always, human stupidity. And that, as we know only too well, is one disease for which there is no vaccine.