Boris urges everyone to ‘behave responsibly' as lockdown eases

People queued up outside retailers across England to release their pent-up shopping fever and had even an early haircut as shops, pubs, gyms, parks, salons reopened

BIRMINGHAM

People queued up outside retailers across England on Monday to release their pent-up shopping fever and some grabbed a midnight pint or even an early haircut as England’s shops, pubs, gyms and hairdressers reopened after three months of lockdown.

After imposing the most onerous restrictions in Britain’s peacetime history, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the reopening was a “major step” towards freedom but urged people to behave responsibly as the coronavirus was still a threat.

As the sun rose, dozens of people queued up outside Primark in English cities such as Birmingham and outside JD Sports on Oxford Street in London, undeterred by the unseasonably cold weather.

Some folk lined up after midnight to raise a pint with fellow revellers at the Kentish Belle in Bexleyheath, south London, and at the Oak Inn in Coventry, central England.

“I’m so excited to see my clients: to see how they are and give them that feeling that they get from having had their hair done,” Maggie Grieve, who manages Beaucatcher hairdressers in north London, told Reuters.