The Changing Face of London

Is it a bit different around here lately?

We've been feeling the same.

Those who passed through central London during lockdown will remember eerily deserted streets and an unusual tranquillity that came hand in hand with the unsettling absence of people - in a cosmopolitan hub where we are used to crowds at all times.

It's more than a year on from lockdown number one. A rising number of residents and commuters alike may be back in the city now, the tube may be filling slowly back to the sardines-in-a-jar standard that we remember, but things are still looking, and feeling, a bit different.

With flexible working schedules, 'work from home wardrobes' making their way into the office, video calls and instant messages the new norm of workplace communications, and many still choosing remote peace and quiet over central hustle and bustle - is this the driven, hyper-professional, 'city-that-never-sleeps' London that it was before the pandemic?

We've seen many thought pieces about how the city may never recover, but continue to slowly empty as people's changing lifestyles favour less urban surroundings. That doesn't just mean empty offices, it means no one to fill the pubs, the theatres, the housing market, and inject the necessary consumer money into those industries.

Could this be the last economical blow to a capital already unsteady on its feet? There is a case for this:

With some industries struggling to find workers and visitors from abroad still down to a fraction of the reliable norm, from both an industry and tourism point of view a return to London's eminent economic standing may be looking uncertain.

Estimates as to the number of residents who have abandoned London altogether in preference to pastures beyond the confines of the M25, or indeed Britain’s shores as a whole, range anywhere between 300,000 and a stunning 700,000. That's a lot of empty homes.

Indeed, some fear "shortages of the life blood of labour, commuters, residents and tourists that once kept London’s economy in rude health." This is evidenced in many ways. For instance, the decrease in tube and bus usage by 60% and 40% respectively - Evening Standard.

So it's all doom and gloom then?

Well, not so fast.

Some sources suggest otherwise, and with compelling evidence, too.

The policy chair at the City of London Corporation, Catherine McGuinness, stated that so far in 2021 the corporation have already seen 80% of the number of office space applications seen in the whole of last year. This suggests "continued interest and continued commitment to that office space.”

It's just the way we'll be using space that look set to change, with most companies embracing the idea of a flexible working week, balancing remote working with traditional office-based hours.

Again on the optimistic side, the mayor of London's office, while acknowledging the tragedies and challenges that have been at the forefront of the city's consciousness, terms this period of recovery as an opportunity, to create a new London, "One which is fairer, greener and more resilient than it was before."

Those asked by the Financial Times agreed that change is ahead, and are eager for it, wondering "whether a return to 'business as usual' should even be the aim given how stark pre-pandemic inequalities already were in housing, health and opportunity." After all, periods of disruption can historically help to do away with the flaws in a pre-existing social structure, as well as challenging it’s better attributes.

In sum, opinions are as ever, divided. Amid talk of an achingly slow recovery for the Arts and tourism, and the need for a 'post war-style' game plan in the interim, there are also assertions predicting an economic boom a la the roaring 20s, and an exciting moment of cultural reinvention for cities like this.

And, as ever, we will likely have to wait and see. But let us say for arguments sake things really do change, that the city is set to metamorphose, repopulate with a different ilk of resident, or at least undergo a visible shake-up to the routine of things.

Does this mean that the city loses its identity?

For one I find this an unlikely stretch, since like all really old cities, London is no stranger to seismic change, and its identity is thus ever evolving. That’s really the point, and the beauty of it. Todays is not the London of the Victorian era, nor of the Nineteen Eighties, and it will not be the London of pre-Covid times... however it is still itself, redefined and enriched by its changing and diverse people.

But what does a recruitment consultancy firm care about such issues as cultural reinvention, you ask?

Well, largely thought of as the financial and corporate centre of its isle, and Orbis's first home, London matters to us, and its evolution is sharply relevant to day to day life in the Connects community.

We're all about people and jobs, and London is full of both. So what does it mean if that changes?

For us it means potential, it means the next big thing. We always try to stay future-facing at Orbis; within the company as well as without, Covid induced changes have been embraced as new and exciting options for the working world. Necessity is the mother of invention after all, and we feel confident that in our case it has bred improvement.

From exciting disruption of the status quo in our specialist industries generating opportunity, to new internal communications supporting us to operate on a truly global scale, we are moving with the times and finding that change can make us even better.