Opinion | Coronavirus-hit London’s horrible history of plagues, death and disease
- Before Covid-19 there was Spanish Flu and Black Death
As London braces for more Covid-19 cases – the population confined to their homes, commerce ground to a halt, hospitals at the ready – it is somewhat comforting to know London has survived far worse pandemics before, with much less medical knowledge and equipment.
I used my daily exercise outing under quarantine regulations to enjoy the blissful silence that has befallen the city and go on a cycle tour of three important historical sites of past plagues, all within less than a mile of my home.
My first stop is the church of St Augustine with St Philip’s opposite the blue shiny Royal London Building in Whitechapel in East London, now a hospital museum.
Once known as the Cathedral of the East End, the church contains the only monument in the country to the victims of the so-called Spanish Flu of 1918 that swept across the globe killing more than 50 million people, including 220,000 in Britain. At one point, that flu was claiming the lives of 2,500 people a week in central London.
The memorial, in the form of three stained glass windows, one with a graph of the epidemics spike, cannot be seen from outside. I will have to wait until the museum reopens, once the coronavirus lockdown ends.
Spanish Flu targeted teenagers and young adults. Pregnant women were particularly susceptible. It was sometimes known as Blue Death because those stricken could turn blue as they gasped for air as their infected lungs filled with mucus and blood. Then, as now, lockdowns were used as a weapon to fight the terrible disease that killed as many people as four-and-half years of war. So were masks, social distancing and lots of handwashing.
