I was due to begin a column series on the intersection of architecture and politics, but – in light of the current situation – I’ve decided to postpone it. Working from home alone, not sure when I’ll see loved ones again, my enthusiasm for the intricacies of policy making has waned somewhat. What I’ve been finding strangely comforting is the odd article I have seen about the history of pandemics and quarantine. While unprecedented in our lifetimes, humanity has been through this before and has emerged – sometimes limping and depleted – but it has emerged. And sometimes strengthened and refocused.

A little bit of research and I realise what I should have already known: that the health and prosperity of the modern West is almost unknown through history. Access to the wonders of modern medicine have largely curtailed the epidemics that always thrive in places where humans live in close proximity. The UK, and in particular London, has always known waves of death.

The Black Death in 1348 killed 40% of London’s population. Outbreaks of the “sweating sickness” struck London at least six times in the 16th century – in 1528 so severely that it “carried off thousands in the space of five or six hours”. And there were at least five “plague years” between 1563 and 1603.

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