The barrel-vaulted tunnels and platforms of the tube stations traversed by millions of Londoners a day are empty.

Some, grotty and bleak with just the sound of a creaking escalator breaking the eerie silence, others such as Lord Foster’s Canary Wharf and the art deco Arnos Grove, laying bare their architectural magnificence in the newly ordained coronavirus peace.

A solitary passenger on the escalator at Bank underground station, usually one of the most congested on the network.

Signs at Westminster underground station.

Three weeks into the coronavirus lockdown, traffic on the tube has been slashed with all but essential workers discouraged from travelling because of the risk of infection in crowds. According to Transport for London, the numbers of journeys have dropped from 3.98m on 3 April last year to just 200,000 on 1 April this year.

The tiling at Piccadilly Circus, which was refurbished in the mid-1980s. The original tile designs helped a then more illiterate population identify the stations on the network.

TfL gave the Guardian access over two days to chronicle both the classic architecture and the experience of key workers during this historic time.

So what is it like?

In parts, it is as if the grim reaper is waiting at the bottom of the escalator.

Leytonstone psychodrama. Masked man passes mural of Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho shower.

Posters at the station entrances offer clear orders: essential workers “you can travel”, everybody else “go home”. Staff are cordoned off from the ticket barriers with red and white tape to ensure their distance from potentially infected members of the public. Public address systems blare out war-like instructions across the network every four minutes telling people who shouldn’t be on the tube to go home.

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“Hi, I’m Mike, one of the team here who are supporting journeys for critical workers only” booms the public address system at Whitechapel station opposite one of the biggest hospitals in London. “No one should be travelling”. Stop. “Stay at home”. Stop. “Don’t travel, Stop. “Save lives.”

Mike, one of the duty managers at Whitechapel tube.

Morale among the staff appears good despite the bad news that morning that 14 transport workers have died after contracting the coronavirus. They feel as if they are playing their part in a war effort.

But just who else is still using the tube? NHS staff in their droves, but many more who are also keeping the capital ticking over during the lockdown.

The longest escalator in the tube network at Angel station would normally carry hundreds.

Westminster

The station that is probably used by more powerful people than any other in the network; the hub for MPs, civil servants, lobbyists, journalists along with millions of tourists a year lies virtually empty, with dozens of homeless people now taking the place of buskers and queues into Portcullis House.

It is also a hub for NHS staff as it serves St Thomas’ hospital, where Boris Johnson was being treated until his release on Sunday.

Jieun Park, 26, banking executive

Jieun works in the corporate loans department for a Korean bank at Tower Bridge. She cannot access the banking system at home, so is allowed to travel under government rules.

“This is my first day back at work after 14 days. My flatmate had the symptoms, she had the cough, but she went back to Korea and because everyone going into Korea has to be tested, she got tested and it came back negative.”

Asked how she thought the UK was faring with coronavirus compared to Korea she said: “The UK, I’m sorry to say this, is quite bad. I think the important thing is that everyone gets tested.”

“In Korea you can walk into a GP surgery and get tested. You don’t need to make an appointment and there is a supply of masks for everyone. It’s just an everyday thing.”

Akeim Ansine, 22, Amazon worker

On his way to work for Amazon at its Park Royal delivery warehouse, Akeim is helping keep the nation in toilet roll.

“We do same day or next delivery groceries. We used to do the normal things like paper, pens, staplers, just general homeware.

“Now it’s pasta, toilet paper, oils. Everybody is pretty much overwhelmed,” he said.

But in an important message for the nation he says, “there is an abundance of toilet roll”.

“People should not be worried. Every day, trucks come and deliver five to 10 pallets a day with about 500 to 1,000 packs per pallet.

“We sell all of that every single day. It’s kind of weird.”

Alex, homeless, normally sleeps at Charing Cross station

“They’ve closed Charing Cross and they’re putting us all in hotel rooms, but we’re being allocated rooms miles away. How are we supposed to get there when we have no money for the tube? Last night I tried to get on a bus and the bus driver tried to fight me to get off. We are the victims. When we get to the hotels all the rooms are gone, then where are we supposed to go. It’s a joke,” he says.

“They’ve closed all the public toilets. How are we meant to wash our hands? I just don’t understand. How can they not allocate free transport to us when they can suddenly allocate housing to people, something they’ve never done before.

“We can’t get enough food. People aren’t going to work so we can’t get money begging. It used to be okay. We used to get fed on the Strand. Over the past 10 years, 500 people got their food there every night and there’s never been any trouble. Now they have police out moving us on. The victims of this are the homeless.”

Fernanda Harwicke, 37, assistant manager, Leon restaurant, South Kensington

Like many, the Leon restaurant chain, continues to operate but as a supplier of meals to NHS workers and online customers.

“Yesterday we did 368 meals for the hospital nearby [Chelsea and Westminster]. But we are also supplying food to our customers.

“In the very first week we turned our restaurant into making meals, it has taken time to adapt but it’s good now and it’s good to help the NHS,” she says.

Canary Wharf

The escalators at Canary Wharf move passengerless to the outside.

It is said that more people use this vast cathedral-like station at the heart of Britain’s financial district than Oxford Circus during rush hour.

But the grandeur and elegance of Lord Foster’s Docklands tube station is exposed as the hustle and bustle of this station at the heart of Britain’s financial services Docklands district is replaced by an empty, eerie silence.

Escalators move passengerless. Some trains pass through without a single passenger getting on or off.

Louis Nicholl, 21, from Norfolk

Louis is travelling to Southwark for his first day in his new job as a police officer.

“When I was getting the bus from Sidcup I was more afraid. I came here on the DLR and the driver is barriered off and people can be 10 feet apart so it’s okay.”

Roxy Yang, 28, and Sue Yang, 54

Roxy works on the beauty counter at Selfridge’s in Oxford Street and was among the first batch of workers to be furloughed.

She decided to leave London because her housemate was still working and she felt she might bring the virus home. Her mother, Sue, came down from Manchester to accompany her home.

“She was very worried I might catch the virus in London. She’s been asking me to come home every day for more than a week. She’s very relieved and happy that finally we are going home,” says Roxy.

“The trains are so empty. It is so different from what it usually is. I’m happy to see that because it means people are staying at home,” she adds.

Charlie Briars and Varelie Ivalor

The couple have just walked from nearby Poplar to get their cash out of Santander bank but the branch isn’t open so they are on their way on the tube network in search of a branch that is.

“I’m really annoyed, they don’t answer the phone. The website has the wrong information. We need to get our money out,” said Charlie.

Northern line platform at Bank.

A deserted London Bridge concourse.

London Bridge

London Bridge, one of the critical interchanges in the country, with packed commuter trains connecting with the Jubilee and Northern line tube services, is like a ghost town with shops shuttered and empty concourses.

Titi, 40, support worker, mental health services

Tito is on her way back from Elephant and Castle after a supervisory visit to a residential unit for adults with learning and mental disabilities.

“It’s been very hard. They don’t understand why they have to stay indoors and they are not very happy about it. They like to go out and about. One of them managed to leave the house and they had to call the police. The problem is when they are out they touch everything because they don’t understand about not touching things or about social distancing, so they can bring the virus home.

“The last three weeks have been very stressful. Some of them were crying and on the phone wanting to go. Some have family, some don’t,” she said.

Margaret

She is travelling from Canning Town to Clapham North hoping to pay her last respects to her friend who has died at home, she believes, of bronchitis.

“I am going to a funeral of a friend. Her husband has just died. He was 73 and had bronchitis. I don’t know if the body is still at home.”

Only immediate families are advised to attend funeral services in England, according to government guidance, so it is an especially challenging time for all the bereaved.

“At least he died at home and wasn’t in hospital because she wouldn’t have been able to be with him,” she says.

*Margaret asked for her real name not to be used.

Ricky, 36, security staff

Ricky is on his way to work at an office block and is anxious about travelling on the tube.

“I follow the distancing rules but when you are on the underground there is more virus because it’s more compact. They gave us gloves and the mask at work. But you notice some sort of crazy people on the tube,” he says as a young adult male, possibly on drugs, bounces erratically around the platform shouting.

A lone figure at a Bank tunnel, normally crammed with City types working in financial services.

A discarded begging cup and the Mind the Gap warning at Bank.

Whitechapel

Whitechapel station in east London is the stop for NHS staff working at the Royal London, one of the biggest hospitals in London and home to London’s air ambulance. We visited outside rush hour (due to Tfl restrictions) and the station was near deserted.

Sarah, NHS worker

Sarah commutes from Essex to the Royal London hospital, one of the biggest hospitals in the capital. She works in “backline” duties in a non-face-to-face job in blood sciences.

She was recently redeployed to another department as part of the hospital’s coronavirus response.

“I don’t want to particularly come out and travel on the tube but some of us have got to do this. Coming in, there is only one train an hour and the hard part is connecting with the train on the way back,” she says illustrating how hard travelling to work has become after the reduction of transport services. But she is positive. “So far I’ve not had to breach the two-metre rule.”

Giuseppe Casser from Naples

He restores antiques but is currently out of work and staying at home. He’s on the tube at Whitechapel where he lives to go to Sloane Square to help an 80-year-old friend who is vulnerable and needs food and cleaning products. “Every day the tube is full, full, full, but now there are fewer people, it is good.

Andrea Peter, 25, from Hungary

Andrea is on her way to work in the dispensary at a branch of Boots in Hyde Park.

“In the past two weeks it was a bit scary on the tube. It was quite chaotic in the first few weeks. In the beginning there were a lot more people on the tube. There were lot of homeless people and beggars on almost every train. Now everybody is used to it so it is better.”

Monument

Monument underground station.

Monument station on the north bank of the Thames is linked to Bank through a warren of underground walkways that connect the Circle, District, Metropolitan and Northern lines and “the drain”, the nickname for the Waterloo and City line, which is closed during the coronavirus lockdown.

Empty train with doors open at Monument underground station.

• This article was amended on 14 and 28 April 2020 to clarify that only immediate families are advised to attend funeral services in England, rather than “allowed” to do so as an earlier version said; and to correct the date of the tiling at Piccadilly Circus.