Abandoned Places: Photographs of Glasgow during Lockdown

Like the rest of the country, Glasgow was declared a place to avid on 23rd March 2020, when British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a national Lockdown. Only essential businesses were to stay open. People were ordered to stay home, save lives, protect the NHS. It was three weeks to flatten the curve. Yet, the government never gave an official definition of what they meant by a “Lockdown” or how or if it would ever end.

Signs appeared in shop windows, department stores, offices. Closed due to Coronavirus. Stay Safe. Protect the NHS. Overnight cities became ghost towns. Deserted streets. Boarded-up premises. The public followed orders. They stayed home.

For photographer and archivist Neil McDonald, Lockdown was an opportunity to document the impact of a global pandemic on his home city of Glasgow.