The 2020 Pandemic and Cities : London as a Case Study

This article analyses the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic during 2020 on London’s socio-economic structure. After outlining the history of health crises in London during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and the city’s demographic decline and resurgence, it describes the 2020 pandemic’s impact on London’s socio-economic inequalities and the role of home working. Context is provided by describing my own locality and experience while the wider context is discussed through comparison with other highly globalised cities such as Singapore. The article concludes by placing London’s 2020 pandemic within a historical perspective as infections increase after the summer holidays and the beginning of the teaching term