In late October, Matthew Jones was enjoying a rare "bit of normality" at his London barber shop in a year that has been short on that.

He was cutting hair and laughing with colleagues — when the news that the business would have to close for the second time landed.

Jones, 43, endured 15 weeks without any income after the three Sharpes barber shops he co-owns were forced to shut in the spring as the government imposed restrictions to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

The shops, including a tiny one in east London's Hackney neighborhood, had been open for four months when Prime Minister Boris Johnson ordered a new lockdown.

"This second lockdown has been tough because you are just building up your business again trying to get back to a normal lifestyle and then all of a sudden it is all taken away and you know we still have high rents to pay here," Jones said.

The United Kingdom saw a sharp resurgence of COVID-19 infections this autumn, and the government imposed a second round of restrictions.

The suffering caused by the virus has been especially acute in the UK, where more than 57,000 people have died in Europe's deadliest outbreak and the economy has plunged.

While small businesses all over the world are struggling as the virus forces many of them to close, many in the UK are also facing the economic uncertainty caused by Britain's exit from the European Union.

Many British businesses managed to survive the spring lockdown with generous aid from the government, including grants like the £10,000 ($13,300) grant Jones received and a program that pays a portion of wages to workers whose employers are struggling.

The measures have helped keep the unemployment rate relatively low at 4.8% — though it has been rising and is forecast to hit 7.5% next spring.

The latest round of restrictions could pack a bigger punch in the crucial weeks ahead of Christmas.

Even before the second lockdown was announced, a survey conducted by Britain's Office for National Statistics showed that one in seven UK companies reported having "little or no confidence" they would survive the next three months.

Jones estimates that the pandemic wiped out 60% of his income this year.

With his shops closed, the single dad, who has a 10-year-old daughter, is doing odd jobs on building sites — and praying that business will return enough to ease the pain once restrictions lift on December 2.

The five other barbers who work in his shops are self-employed, and trying to scrape by as well.

Hackney, where one of Jones' shops is based has seen steady gentrification in the past two decades.

Located in London's historically gritty East End, the borough is filled with trendy bars and expensive apartments.

Broadway Market itself is lined with some 60 small shops, cafes and restaurants, and before COVID-19 hit, the street would throng with locals and tourists coming for the hugely popular weekend market.

These days, some shops are doing better than others, but everyone is scrambling to adapt.

Jane Howe, who has run Broadway Bookshop since 2005, said the weekends would often get so busy that her shop would take in thousands of pounds in sales per day on the back of £7.99 books.  

For a shop that relies heavily on foot traffic, the cycles of coronavirus restrictions have been hard.

In June, Howe launched a website for the first time, but she says it does not replicate shopping in person where you might buy more than you intend.

Even once her doors reopened, the tiny space meant she couldn't welcome back her usual crowds.

Sales from the website don't come close to making up for the in-person sales she's lost — especially during the crucial Christmas period.

"It's very difficult to be open because we are only allowed five people in at a time," Howe said.

With the shop pulling in just over half what it used to, Howe has stopped paying herself and when one of her two employees left, she was not able to replace her.

Like Jones, she's managed to keep paying the rent thanks to a government grant.

She has also taken out a £50,000 state loan.  

Others haven't fared as well.

A much-loved bakery next to Sharpes that was part of a 66-year-old family-run chain closed for good, Jones said.

The bakery's closure stands in contrast to a trend seen on much of the street where butchers, fishmongers, greengrocers and delis have done relatively well thanks to a surge in interest from fairly affluent locals who are now working from home and shopping locally.

Popular coffee shop Climpsons struggled to adapt at first — the cafe was shut, the wholesale business almost completely wiped out, and 34 of the company's 42 workers went on the government furlough scheme in the first weeks of the pandemic, co-owner Danny Davies said.

But now on weekdays, Climpsons often serves more take-away coffees than before the pandemic.

That makes up for losses on the wholesale side, which supplied restaurants and offices.  

"It's not great for business. We're worried about some of our customers, they're struggling. I think we ourselves have managed to weather the storm thanks to some of the resources (government grants) available," Davies said.

Down the street, Grigorios Vaitsas says business at his deli, Isle of Olive, has not been too bad, even though he has closed his small indoor cafe and Christmas shopping events have been canceled.

But Vaitsas and his partner, Paulina, who import their products from Greece, have been losing sleep over another threat: Brexit.

The couple are worried about the tariffs and bureaucracy if Britain leaves the economic embrace of the EU at the end of the year with no deal in place.

That combined with the pandemic makes a "perfect storm," Vaitsas said.  

"If the tariffs and the logistics and all of that, you know, get the prices so high that our items are now considered luxury goods, then it really changes completely our business model and what we were planning to do," Vaitas said.

London - 17 November 2020

1. Wide of people on Broadway Market

2. Road sign for Broadway Market

3. People walking on Broadway Market

4. Exterior of Sharpes Barbers with owner Matthew Jones putting up Christmas lights in the window

5. Close of 'Sharpes' sign

6. Various of Jones cleaning chair inside barber shop

7. SOUNDBITE (English) Matthew Jones, co-owner of three barber shops including Sharpes:

"This second lockdown has been tough because you are just building up your business again trying to get back to a normal lifestyle and then all of a sudden it is all taken away and you know we still have high rents to pay here. So yeah it's been really tough."

8. Jane Howe, owner of Broadway Bookshop, walking into shop

9. Cutaway of books in window

10. Howe changing book display in the window

11. SOUNDBITE (English) Jane Howe, owner of The Broadway Bookshop:

"People don't always come in knowing what they want. They see things on tables and they buy them, they just pick them up, like you don't always stick to your shopping list you usually buy more than you intend and that happens more in person than it would online."

12. Cutaway of books in window

13. SOUNDBITE (English) Jane Howe, owner of The Broadway Bookshop:

"It's very difficult to be open with only allowed five people in at a time and queues on the pavement and people taking a long time to buy their stuff instead of thinking about other people and hurrying up… you know."

14. Exterior of Climpson and Sons coffee shop with people queuing outside

15. Close of Climpson and Sons coffee shop and queue

16. Close of food in window

17. SOUNDBITE (English) Danny Davies, Co-owner of Climpson and Sons coffee shop and wholesale coffee business:

"I mean it's not great for business. We're worried about some of our customers, they're struggling. I think we ourselves have managed to weather the storm thanks to some of the resources (government grants) available."

18. Food in window

19. Employee serving person at entrance

20. SOUNDBITE (English) Danny Davies, Co-owner of Climpson and Sons coffee shop and wholesale coffee business.

"At one point in time it was really hard to see how it was going to go back to normal again but then the summer just gone we've seen pretty good sales figures. I think next year it will be similar with a bit more optimism with the vaccine."

21. Shop front of Isle of Olive deli, with Christmas decorations around it

22. Various of Paulina Filippou, co-owner of Isle of Olive dusting pastries with icing sugar

23. Pastries being put on shelf

24. Grigorios Vaitsas, co-owner of Isle of Olive, at till

25. Products for sale

26. SOUNDBITE: (English) Grigorios Vaitsas, co-owner of Isle of Olive deli:

"We hear and we see near us a lot of business shutting down, we know about rising unemployment so the coming of Brexit would just, or a no-deal Brexit rather, would just be like the perfect storm in terms of retail."

27. Various of Filippou dishing olives into pot

28. SOUNDBITE: (English) Grigorios Vaitsas and Paulina Filippou, co-owners of Isle of Olive deli:

Vaitsas: "We wanted to, to, have items that they're not just a one-off purchase they become part of..."

Filippou: "Not luxury products, people have good food every day."

Vaitsas: "So, if the tariffs and the logistics and all of that, you know, get the prices so high that our items are now considered luxury goods, then it really changes completely our business model and what we were planning to do."

30. Bottles of olive oil on shelf

31. Wide of products on shelves