The Square Mile is a ghost town. It will stay that way

“PEOPLE ARE raring to get back in,” says Catherine McGuinness of the City of London Corporation, the municipal governing body for the financial district. “There’s a real atmosphere of excitement—we had some green shoots last summer, but now it just feels a lot more real.” The Lord Mayor talks of a growing light at the end of the tunnel.

Few places in the rich world have been more profoundly affected by covid-19, because few depend so heavily on commuters. In 1857 Building News, an architectural journal, declared that “except for business purposes, the City may be said to be now uninhabited”. These days fewer than 10,000 people make their homes in the Square Mile, although its pubs, restaurants and barbers were created to serve the 542,000 who normally work in the district. By comparison, New York’s somewhat larger financial district has 64,000 residents and 307,000 daily workers.