Solidarity in Soho: running a coronavirus testing centre

Simon, proprietor of the sex shop opposite our Covid-19 testing centre in Soho, insisted on popping a pack of Sildenafil in my top pocket each time I passed his ribbon curtains. ‘Have a lovely weekend,’ he’d say kindly. For several weeks we occupied the delightful Boulevard Theatre at the end of Berwick Street. With all the theatres across the capital closed, it was the only show
in town: fast antibody and antigen testing
for the public at half the price of clinics in Harley Street.

We first launched the business back in May in the City of London, at the Honourable Artillery Company — convinced that the British people were straining to return to work after lockdown. We imagined big companies would send a tidal wave of their staff through the doors so that they could help their people resume their normal lives and get the engine of the UK’s economy thrumming again.

A team of us worked late into the night setting up our company with the backing of my friend Ian, whose mum died as we went into lockdown and who just wanted to help the city he loved. Apart from me there was Hamish, a razor-sharp investment banker with a Stakhanovite work ethic and a young family to feed on furlough. Head of ops was Rich, an ex-Army captain who last year rescued a man shot outside a Brixton kebab shop by using his belt to tie a tourniquet around the fellow’s bleeding leg.

And around them, a crew of ex-military medics, softly spoken war veterans from the North with extensive tattoos. Some would occasionally disappear off to rescue refugees in the Mediterranean, or they’d tell stories of ‘Afghan’, and everybody was happy
for the work. And then there were our fabulous doctors from Leicester, who gave us professional clinic support — Professors Mo Roshan and Rishabh Prasad.