Portsmouth review of the Year - January

After the tier system and Christmas restrictions of December 2020, the new year got off to a chaotic start as schools announced one by one over the first weekend of January that they would be opening only to key worker or vulnerable children. The National Education Union had urged headteachers on Saturday, January 2 not to reopen, while Prime Minister Boris Johnson told the country on the Sunday that schools were safe and should reopen on Monday as usual.

However, on the evening of Monday, January 4, a new lockdown was brought in by the PM – and schools were to close immediately, after just one day. So it was back to remote learning, just as it had been the previous spring.

Other measures included the return of not being allowed to leave the house, except to shop for basic necessities, to go to work, to do exercise, or to meet a support or childcare bubble.

A week into January it was announced that St James’ Hospital would become a mass vaccination hub, as the vaccine roll-out – started a month earlier – began to accelerate. At first the oldest were invited as the NHS made its way down the initial nine categories. But it led to high hopes that there might be a way out of the pandemic soon rather than later. Twelve months on, perhaps the jury is still out on those hopes.

Understandably, Covid made a regular appearance on the News front page. Whether it was police vowing that they would uphold lockdown rules, The News launching a campaign to persuade the government to use community pharmacies as part of the vaccine rollout, or the effect that Covid was having on the health service, the effects of the pandemic permeated the news agenda daily. The strain on education was also seen, as The News analysed figures which showed that thousands more children were in school than attended in the first lockdown, leading teachers to plead with parents to keep children at home if possible.

Saturday, January 30 saw a particularly shameful episode as police were called to a party in an AirBnB rental property in St Chad’s Avenue, North End. It led to several arrests and court appearances for coronavirus law rule breaches.

January this year also saw an anniversary that through into relief our current travails – it was 80 years since the worst of the Nazis’ bombing raids on Portsmouth. The city and surrounding areas suffered greatly during the Second World War, but January 10, 1941 is seen as the night when the Blitz really hit Portsmouth.

As Derek Little put it, speaking this year: ‘I can still see it now… we ran for our lives after air sirens started to sound. We made a beeline for the basement shelter in our house, which we thought was safe but it wasn’t.

‘The bomb blew the pub next door into bits killing six people. We would have been blown to bits too if he had hit us.

‘Most of our house was ruined and all we could see was rubble and bits of wood. My mum, dad and us five kids were all frightened to death. I am grateful to still be here.’

Elsewhere in the month, tributes were paid to D-Day veteran Ron Cross of Gosport, who was one of the first to storm the Normandy beaches. A stalwart of Gosport Cricket Club, and an occupational therapist who worked at the Royal Hospital, Haslar for 37 years, he was described as a ‘local legend’.

On January 27 HMS Queen Elizabeth became the flagship of the Royal Navy – an apt honour of the Portsmouth-based behemoth.

The Commercial Road Sainsbury’s closed its doors for the final time on January 30. Built on the site of the former Royal Hospital, the building is now being used as an indoor skate park.

On a lighter note, The News reported how Daniel Meech had been belting out karaoke tunes for 260 consecutive days – dressed variously as Barbie, Mrs Doubtfire and more, all in aid of Friends Fighting Cancer. And we told how web designer Ciara Emery decided to use her new TikTok account to post a video of her opening a range of colourful Barbie toys – little realising that she would amass 170,000 followers and join the legions of social media influencers.

And 11-year-old Manchester United fan Rogan Morrill was overjoyed when Marcus Rashford tweeted praise for the youngster’s work at the Gosport charity Jacob’s Well Care Centre, volunteering in the food bank or furniture warehouse.

And at the end of the month came a note of optimism. The Imagine Portsmouth 2040 scheme saw community leaders rally behind the project, which set goals such as ‘a happy and healthy city’ and one that was culturally rich. The forward-looking idea came as a tonic at the end of a month in which we made all too aware of the changes to – and limitations put on – our lives by the coronavirus.