Portsmouth Coronavirus: eerily empty Easter weekend aerial photos

With the UK on lockdown during the coronavirus outbreak, our aerial photos have been feeling a bit empty recently! While on our daily permitted outing for exercise over the Easter weekend, we drove to a few places in Portsmouth and Southsea that are usually fairly busy, to document just how quiet the city is at the moment.

The M275 — usually in bumper-to-bumper gridlock during the quietest times of any UK holiday — was reduced to a mere sliver of cars.

Eastney — a part of the city that is, admittedly, typically already fairly serene — remains peaceful and calm, with the usual flow of boat traffic down to a minimum.

Predictably, perhaps, Southsea Seafront showed the most signs of life, with a couple-hundred locals walking or cycling down the promenade on their daily exercise outings — all while maintaining safe distances from one another, of course! A few construction projects that have momentarily been left in hiatus can be seen in some of these shots.

The attractions along Southsea Seafront, on the other hand, were expectedly deserted, including the Southsea Model Village, the Rose Gardens, and the Tenth Hole golf course.

It was great to see the residential streets of Southsea and Portsmouth light on people — it shows everyone is following the advice to stay inside unless absolutely necessary.

In the north of the city, the areas around the Mountbatten Centre and Alexandra Park — normally dotted with runners and outdoor exercise enthusiasts — were vacant, bar for a few dog walkers. Walking dogs outdoors is permitted at the time of writing — just make sure your doggo doesn’t pull you too close to other people while sniffing their doggos!

A special thank-you to Portsmouth News for also featuring these aerial drone photos of Portsmouth and Southsea!

As always, if there’s anywhere you’d like to see photographed — particularly in the south of England! — drop a comment on our Instagram feed or Facebook page, or send us a tweet.