The lockdown habits that stuck – and the ones we left behind

Telegraph

15-03-2025

Almost five years has passed since then prime minister Boris Johnson announced that the country was going into lockdown due to the Coronavirus pandemic. 'Stay at home to stop the disease spreading between households,' he told us on the evening of 23 March 2020.
Cast your mind back and you'll remember that we could only leave the house for basic shopping needs, one bout of exercise a day and to provide essential care for the vulnerable – and to work from home if we could.
As a result, our lives – and lifestyles – were turned upside down overnight. Online shopping and takeaway orders boomed, and we fought over loo paper. After a few weeks masks became essential and we all became dab hands at sticking swabs up our noses.
Just over two years later, on 1 Apr 2022, all restrictions ceased, and normal life could resume. But some habits have been altered forever. While Mark Zuckerberg's Metaverse didn't take off, the way we socialise has changed, with late nights a thing of the past.
Plus, we've seen the unstoppable rise of the T.W.A.T.s: Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays office workers. Despite companies pushing for a full return to the office, Department for Transport data shows that rail travel remains lower on Mondays and Fridays, with roads noticeably quieter on those days too.
Half a decade on, we look at the ways society has changed – and all the weird habits we happily left behind.
The Covid-era habits that stuck
A nation of early diners
Walk down any busy city centre all over Britain, and you'll notice that the restaurants are packed out at 6.30pm. But what eateries are increasingly finding is that later diners have disappeared – there's no longer a North-South divide over dinner time.
'Doing three sittings a night – an early, middle and late – used to be the norm at most popular restaurants,' comments Leonid Shutov, founder of London restaurant group, Bob Bob Ricard. 'Now the majority of customers want a 7-8pm booking and head home once they are done. The streets empty out by 10pm.'
Shutov also believes that diners are less willing to explore. 'Travelling for a great new spot on the other side of the town used to be one of the perks of living in a city,' says Shutov. 'But these days even crossing the street for a fabulous meal feels a bit of a chore to many. Everyone increasingly lives, works and dines in their own neck of the woods.'
How we order changed too, with an upsurge in the dreaded QR code, particularly in cafés and pubs. Paying before the food arrives is common (many places ask for a tip before you've even been served too.) But not having a menu or even a bill presented with a flourish can make eating out feel less special.
On the plus side, during the pandemic al fresco dining boomed, and we all turned a little bit Scandi – and that trend has continued. A survey from booking app Opentable found three quarters of diners hoped to continue dining outdoors and pub gardens are the most sought-after places to dine.
Jumping on a Zoom call
Being asked to 'jump on' a video call at work is now a ubiquitous part of corporate life. In the early days of the pandemic, the number of people who set up accounts on video-conferencing services like Zoom and Microsoft Teams shot up by 500 per cent.
While Zoom quizzes with your loved ones and best mates have long since ceased, video meetings have become a regular part of the workday. Recruitment company Robert Walters found one in three people have up to four video meetings per day, with the average meeting lasting half an hour (the same poll found 73 per cent of correspondents felt this was harming their productivity.)
Getting groceries delivered
With non-essential shops forced to close, Britons who wanted to treat themselves were forced online. According to ONS statistics, around 80 per cent of shopping happened in physical stores in 2019, but by the end of 2024, that figure had dropped to 73 per cent.
Though that difference looks slight, grocery shopping skews the picture, with some still preferring to do the 'big shop' in person. YouGov research shows that when it comes to clothes, more than two fifths of people (37 per cent) now shop entirely online without ever visiting the high street.
Luxury was another sector which saw a huge increase in online sales, with people 50 per cent more likely to shop online for high value goods than in 2019 and spending more when they do. Safe to say, we probably won't go back to trailing down Bond Street.
The joy of staying in
According to the Night Time Industries Association, since 2020 the UK has lost 37 per cent of its nightclubs – roughly 10 clubs a month. With more people working from home, the concept of spontaneous post-work drinks has evaporated in favour of the joys of staying in.
In late 2024, David McDowall, CEO of the Stonegate Group – which owns several pub and bar chains – revealed that mid-afternoon on Saturdays has become the busiest time for Slug & Lettuce. 'By the time 8pm comes around, it is time to head home,' he said.
In 2023, Tesco research found that 68 per cent of Britons were spending less on going out and preferred to host family and friends at home with potluck dinners and fakeaways. Within the spirits industry, sales of alcohol have fallen, the common view being that most people are sitting on dozens of bottles bought during the days of lockdown at-home cocktail making.
Casual style
With the rise in Zoom calls, the requirements of smart office wear fell by the wayside (even if some people adopted a half and half approach, with shirt and tie on top and tracksuit on the bottom). Now, a certain casualness has permeated the workplace and beyond.
'The tailoring industry – and by default the various specialists who form part of a 'formal' wardrobe, from tiemakers to shirtmakers – was seismically hit during Covid, with closures from Savile Row to the high street,' says Telegraph Men's fashion editor, Stephen Doig.
'The ripples from that fallout are still being felt, not least in an increased casualisation in how we dress in offices now. Much like blended working, we've settled on a kind of 'blended' formality in how we dress; suit jackets with chinos, open necked shirts, suits with trainers.'
The pandemic also accelerated the adoption of digital wallets, driving the popularity of micro bags as women ditched bulky handbags filled with credit and loyalty cards. A more fleeting trend was the decline in makeup sales – particularly lipstick – amid widespread mask-wearing.
Being more aware of our health
The pandemic was a stark reminder that we are what we eat, with obese people twice as likely to die from the disease. In January 2021, an ONS survey of 5,000 Britons, found 80 per cent of Britain had been motivated by the pandemic to change their lifestyles, whether by drinking and smoking less, exercising more, or eating better.
The British Medical Association reported that 'as pubs and restaurants closed their doors, home cooking became more popular and people in the UK improved their diets.' In addition, their findings revealed 'an estimated one million people in Great Britain stopped smoking during the first few months of the pandemic, and it seems that this persisted.'
Online workouts, popularised by figures like Joe Wicks and Adriene Mishler, have become deeply embedded in fitness culture, with millions subscribing to their sessions. In the first week of lockdown alone, 15 million people worldwide tuned in to Joe Wicks' 9 am workout. Meanwhile, interest in wellness extends beyond exercise – according to Nielsen BookScan, 2023 saw record-breaking sales of health and wellbeing books.
Staycationing in the UK
During that period of the pandemic where we had to twizzle test sticks up our noses with a lateral flow test to go abroad (and risk a costly prison sentence at a quarantine hotel on return), many realised just how much wonder was to be found in their own backyards. British 'staycations' exploded in popularity and the trend has continued after the pandemic.
The Cairngorms National Park saw tourist numbers rise 23 per cent between 2019 and 2023. Visits to the North York Moors were up seven per cent during that same period. In 2024, 12 per cent more non-members visited National Trust properties than the year before.
Telegraph Travel expert Greg Dickinson explains, 'This isn't to say we aren't going overseas. It is estimated that Britons made around 87 million overseas trips in 2024 – not far off 2019 record highs. But it's fair to say the pandemic gave us a taste for Britain's distinct brand of the great outdoors, and in many parts of the country it seems to have stuck.'
The rise of ordering in
With restaurants closed, those looking for a good meal jumped on Deliveroo, Just Eat and Uber Eats, but the vogue for takeaways shows no signs of abating. In fact, Uber Eats just celebrated delivering its billionth meal in Britain, adding over 70,000 restaurants to its books since it launched in Britain in 2016, including a 14x increase since 2020.
According to a report from the Institute of Fiscal Studies, prior to the pandemic takeaways accounted for around 31 per cent of the non-home cooked calories people consumed. By the end of the pandemic, this figure was nearly half (47 percent.) According to the National Institute for Health and Care Research, a fifth of Britons order at least one takeaway per week, though other surveys have found that this is higher among younger diners.
...and nine Covid-era habits we left behind
1. Face masks
Although it took a few weeks for mask-wearing in public to become mandatory, they quickly became ubiquitous. A cottage industry emerged – offering vibrant, stylish alternatives – but today, aside from a few cautious individuals, masks have largely vanished from public life in Britain.
2. Zoom pub quizzes
There was a time when a Friday night at home would be filled up with multiple pub quizzes, with apps like Kahoot and Quizlet downloaded onto everyone's phones. By the time the winter 2021 lockdown rolled around, it's fair to say we were truly sick and tired of the enforced jollity.
3. Elbow bumping
We couldn't shake hands or hug when greeting friends, so what were we to do? Uh… tap elbows, apparently.
4. Substantial meals
In Dec 2020, it was ruled that pubs could only serve alcohol alongside a substantial meal. The then chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Michael Gove, sparked controversy by claiming that a Scotch egg did not qualify – only to reverse his stance after clashing with cabinet colleagues.
5. Banana bread
Sure, you can still buy or bake it now, but during lockdown, banana bread became an obsession. According to a study by The Grocer, 45 per cent of Londoners baked a 'loaf cake' – like banana bread. Nationwide, cupcakes were the most popular lockdown bake, with 50 per cent of Britons making them – contributing to a nationwide flour shortage.
6. One way systems
Shops, pubs, restaurants and supermarkets all implemented one-way systems to reduce people crossing paths too often. It could be a bit of a pain, especially if you only realised you'd forgotten the Jaffa Cakes after reaching the freezer aisle.
7. Walking catch-ups
With pubs and cafés closed, the go-to way to meet up with friends was to go for a walk. We all logged dozens of steps, even on rainy days, but as soon as indoor socialising was back, we realised it's much more fun to hang out with friends where it's warm and dry.
8. Pots and pans
Where were you at 8pm on a Thursday during the first lockdown? Outside, banging your pots and pans for the NHS – that's where. For many, it was the only time we saw our neighbours at all. But by the end of May 2020, 'Clap for Our Carers' came to an end, and normal British behaviour resumed – namely, complaining about the NHS.
9. Gin at the bin
If lockdown did one thing, it was to bring us all closer to our neighbours and local communities. Perhaps you enjoyed drinks over the garden fence, or 'gin at the bin' as you were putting out the rubbish – maybe even in your ballgown. Once our actual friends were able to come back into our lives though, neighbourliness took a back seat again.