[lhnz]

Where I live in North London, there was a testing centre for people that were not showing any symptoms. Before Christmas (and after the Tier 4 restrictions were introduced) there was a huge queue of people without symptoms that were very interested in finding out whether they had Coronavirus.

I found it quite strange, since if you were staying at home and had zero symptoms, why would they need a test? However, somebody let slip that they were getting tested in order to get confidence travelling home to visit their family... Therefore, while people were locked-down, I think many worked around this.

[anthilemoon]

I live in London but I went back to Paris where I'm from for Christmas. Here in Paris it was the norm: everyone got tested before driving to their families for Christmas. The days before Christmas there were white tents every couple of blocks where you could get tested without an appointment. You're probably right that's what lots of people in London did as well.

[tomatocracy]

Yes. Some employers here (London) also offered testing on-site for this exact purpose.