UK Covid lockdown five years on: 26 eerie photos show deserted streets and wildlife taking over cities

It was on March 23, 2020 that, as the disease ran rampant, then Prime Minister Boris Johnson gave the unprecedented order to ‘stay at home’.

Usually bustling city centres across the country were reduced overnight to ghost towns, major shopping centres stood eerily empty and wildlife reclaimed the nation’s concrete jungles.

These photos capture some of the most extraordinary sights from those most extraordinary of times, from deer and a badger enjoying the run of Sheffield city centre to Meadowhall shopping centre devoid of shoppers.

Major tourist destinations like York and Scarborough are seen minus the teeming crowds you’d expect during the Easter bank holiday weekend, and a football ground which should have been heaving with fans stands silent after games were called off due to Covid.

The haunting images were captured around the country, including Edinburgh, Birmingham, Leeds and Derbyshire.

A praying angel in the window of a closed pub acts as a symbol of hope, while a skeleton waving from the door of a shut bar appears to be an attempt at gallows humour, and a banner displayed above an empty restaurant implores people to ‘stay home’ and ‘stop the spread’.

It’s not a time many people want to remember, but it’s a period none of us who were around will ever forget.

What are your memories of the Covid pandemic? How do you think it was handled and how well prepared is the UK for a similar health crisis? Let us know in the comments section below.