Michael says the manager of the Pizza Express restaurant in Stert Street has just had the vegetation in the adjoining alley cleared up. Michael says It was awful.
Pizza Express reopened the Abingdon branch on August 6th with a physically distanced layout inside, and hand sanitisers.
The majority of businesses in Abingdon Town Centre have reopened since the lockdown.
Three Greene King pubs remain closed. Hearsay, on facebook, has it that new tenants will be managing them.
The blinds are down at the Black Swan. A full skip at the back shows there is work going on inside.
The blinds are down at the Punchbowl, although I saw lights inside
At the Broad Face there is not even the ghost of a hanged man in the dark inside.
A few shops remain closed. They include the large clothing shop, Peacocks, and the travel agents, Tui. Two charity shops, Oxfam and Sue Ryder, remain closed. Their risk assessments may well say that their elderly volunteers are still too vulnerable.
The Lounge Cafe has a notice saying they will reopen at the end of July.
From the Co-op door in Abingdon, people queuing for the post office went as far as the door to Belinda’s Jewellery Box; people waiting for the Co-op itself queued up the other way.
From 24th July face covering will become mandatory in shops and supermarkets in England. Belinda has some face masks with a six-layer shield, using copper ions infused technology. They proved popular and sold out and she had more in the shop today. During the lockdown Belinda had plenty of time to make more craft products to sell. The art and craft workshops she used to run have not been possible yet.
Barbers in Abingdon town centre re-opened today and there were queues outside some, and sanitiser inside.
Most restaurants re-opened and many had a busy evening as people could eat out for the first time in over three months. They had social distancing signs and tables kept further apart than before.
Pubs also reopened with social distancing measures and signs. Social distancing became more difficult after a couple of drinks.
Taxis were queueing in the hope that the Abingdon night economy was open again.