COVID-19 Commemoration programme: ways to remember
Source: gov.uk (2025-11-13)

Explore different ways you can commemorate COVID-19.

This page explores ways you can commemorate COVID-19. To learn about the government’s COVID-19 Commemorative programme, visit Commemorating the COVID-19 Pandemic (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/commemorating-the-covid-19-pandemic). To find COVID-19 help and support organisations, visit COVID-19 Commemoration programme: help and support (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/covid-19-commemoration-programme-help-and-support).

Take part in the COVID-19 Day of Reflection

The next Day of Reflection (https://dayofreflection.campaign.gov.uk/) is Sunday 8th of March 2026.

The COVID-19 Day of Reflection has been held each year since 2021. It’s an opportunity for communities to come together in commemoration for those who lost their lives and for everyone impacted by the pandemic.

You can hear more about why groups and individuals mark the Day of Reflection in the Behind the Hearts video series (https://dayofreflection.campaign.gov.uk/behind-the-hearts/).

Find a COVID-19 memorial

To help you find your nearest memorial, a list of COVID-19 memorials (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/covid-19-commemoration-programme-list-of-covid-19-memorials) organised by geographic region and a COVID-19 memorials map (https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/embed?mid=1JMqs3S8HElb3jaBjsKgvCERwapYCnR0&ehbc=2E312F&ll=54.253746014993276%2C-2.6525559999999873&z=6) have been developed. This map and list may not currently include every COVID-19 related memorial. Memorials will continue to be added to the map and list.

The National Covid Memorial Wall

The National Covid Memorial Wall (https://www.nationalcovidmemorialwall.org/) in London was founded in 2021 by the COVID-19 Bereaved Families for Justice.

The Wall stretches for 500 metres alongside the River Thames and includes hundreds of thousands of hand-painted red hearts, each one representing a person that died in the UK with COVID-19 as a direct cause of death. It is maintained by the Friends of the Wall, a dedicated volunteer-led charity.

Educational materials

Stories of the pandemic

Oral histories and other forms of personal commentaries serve as an important historical record of this period in our history and as an educational tool for future generations. You can use this list to find online and in-person resources that tell the story of the pandemic.

Please note that this section links to collections provided by third-party organisations, for which the UK government has no responsibility. The list will be updated as new collections are submitted.
- The Academy of Medical Sciences, COVID-19 information hub (https://acmedsci.ac.uk/policy/uk-policy/coronavirus)
Policy and public involvement work to support the UK’s best medical and health research and ensure a range of voices are included in decision-making. It also links to blog posts by the Academy’s president reflecting on their experience of the pandemic, and to an online comic series DIVOC-19 that aimed to empower young adults to make sense of the challenges from the pandemic, co-created by the Academy’s Fellows and medical researchers, artists and young people from across three continents.
- Amgueddfa Cymru - Museum Wales, Covid Stories (https://museum.wales/collections/collecting-covid/)
A project conducted by Amgueddfa Cymru-Museum Wales which invited the public to share their personal stories, photographs, and meaningful objects to create a collective record of life in Wales during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- British Film Institute, Britain on Lockdown (https://www.bfi.org.uk/articles/category/britain-on-lockdown)
A campaign launched by the British Film Institute in April 2020 to crowdsource online videos that captured the UK’s collective experience of the COVID-19 lockdown.
- British Film Institute, These Are the Hands (https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-these-are-the-hands-2020-online)
A short film directed by Tim Langford, created in partnership with the British Film Institute and Event & Visual Communications Association, to support the NHS Charities Together appeal, blending archive footage with contemporary scenes of NHS workers during COVID-19.
- British Library, COVID-19 Testimony Projects Database (https://bl.iro.bl.uk/concern/datasets/4e1fcce4-0008-401e-843d-562fff07eb01)
A database of testimony projects in the UK that collected material during the COVID-19 pandemic, compiled by the British Library’s Oral History team.
- Carers UK, Caring Behind Closed Doors: Forgotten Families in the Coronavirus Outbreak (https://www.carersuk.org/reports/caring-behind-closed-doors-forgotten-families-in-the-coronavirus-outbreak/)
A report based on findings from a Carers UK survey of over 5,000 current and former carers which looked at the impact of COVID-19 on unpaid carers and highlighted the additional care that unpaid carers were providing as services were reduced or closed down.
- Carers UK, Caring Behind Closed Doors: Six months on (https://www.carersuk.org/reports/caring-behind-closed-doors-six-months-on/)
A second report released six months on from their report, Forgotten Families in the Coronavirus Outbreak. Based on the findings from a survey of nearly 6,000 current and former carers, the report looked at the ongoing impact of COVID-19, including the impact that providing increased care was having on carers’ health and wellbeing.
- Carers UK, The experiences of Black, Asian and minority ethnic carers during and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic (https://www.carersuk.org/reports/the-experiences-of-black-asian-and-minority-ethnic-carers-during-and-beyond-the-covid-19-pandemic/)
Research comparing the experiences of carers from underrepresented groups to other groups, examining trends over time, and the adverse impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on carers from underrepresented groups.
- Colchester Borough Council, Commemoration – Remembering and Celebrating the Loves, Lives and Losses of the Last Two Years (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b15Zm06l4dA)
A concert developed by Mercury Theatre in partnership with Colchester Borough Council, BBC Essex and local community and faith organisations featuring songs, music, readings, poetry and special performances to remember the lives lost to COVID-19, and to thank those that provided support to people who suffered during the pandemic.
- Cruse Bereavement, Compassionate Community for Extraordinary Circumstances (https://www.cruse.org.uk/about/blog/bereavement-lockdown-diaries/)
A project in partnership with the bereavement charity, Cruse Bereavement Care, and a provider of extra care housing, The ExtraCare Charitable Trust, together with researchers at the University of Bristol and Aston University. During and after the first COVID-19 lockdown, diaries were kept by bereavement support volunteers capturing their support to clients across the UK and to residents within their ExtraCare retirement village communities in England.
- The Friends of the Wall, Podcast Series (https://www.nationalcovidmemorialwall.org/)
The Friends of the Wall have created a podcast series, ‘The Wall of Grief and Love,’ hosted by volunteers and trustee Lorelei King, who talks to contributors about how the National Covid Memorial Wall began, how it’s maintained, and what it means to those bereaved by covid whose loved ones are commemorated there, in order to understand the importance of this unique memorial, made by the bereaved for the bereaved.
- Historic England, Picturing Lockdown (https://historicengland.org.uk/images-books/archive/collections/photographs/picturing-lockdown/)
Historic England invited the public to submit photographs capturing one week in lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic, creating a visual record now preserved in the Historic England Archive.
- London Museum, Collecting Covid (https://www.londonmuseum.org.uk/collections/projects/collecting-covid/)
In April 2020 over 600 objects and experiences were collected by the Museum to document the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Londoners, with the intention to create a comprehensive record for future generations. The Museum has been long acquiring objects related to current events. The Museum’s main site at London Wall has been closed to the public since December 2022, but it is expected to reopen at a new home in the West Smithfield area with phase one in 2026 (General Market) and phase two (Poultry Market) in 2028. This collection will be accessible to the public once phase two is complete.
- Museum of Chelmsford, Chelmsford City Council, Boredom Project: Boredom-19 (https://www.boredomproject.org/)
The Museum of Chelmsford, in collaboration with Anglia Ruskin University, the British Science Association, and the youth group Chelmsford Creatives, produced a 64-page zine. This publication features artwork and creative reflections from young people across Essex, addressing themes of social media, mental health, privilege, and coping strategies during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Museum of the Home, Stay Home Stories (https://www.stayhomestories.co.uk/)
A UK-based research project that explored how people experienced and redefined “home” during the COVID-19 pandemic through personal stories, creative submissions, and community engagement.
- The National Archives, Outbreak to Archives (https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/from-outbreak-to-archive-tales-of-public-health/)
A series of films combining puppetry, model-making and animation created by young people in July 2020. It explores the history of public health and disease through documents from The National Archives. The young people created, animated, scripted and recorded their films at home as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
- National Care Forum, Caring in COVID (https://www.nationalcareforum.org.uk/projects/ncf-caring-in-covid-project/)
An e-book featuring a collection of stories received from the start of the pandemic up to mid-October 2020 from National Care Forum members about care, community, the frontline, leadership and connection during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- National Life Stories at the British Library, Life in the Time of Corona: Collective Memory of the Chinese Communities (https://www.britishchineseheritagecentre.org.uk/en_uk/projects/life_in_the_time_of_corona.html)
The Ming-Ai (London) Institute recorded 50 interviews with members of the Chinese communities in the UK. The interviews can also be accessed onsite at the British Library (search the Sound and Moving Image catalogue (http://sami.bl.uk) for information using the reference C1883) and online at the British Chinese Heritage Centre. Online access is currently unavailable at the Library as it continues to recover from a significant cyber-attack and service status updates will continue to be issued via the Library’s website.
- National Life Stories at the British Library, Science in a Time of Crisis: Royal Society Covid Committee Interviews (http://sami.bl.uk)
The project includes six focused interviews with members of the three Royal Society committees established at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic to support the scientific response. The interviews can be accessed onsite at the British Library (search the Sound and Moving Image catalogue for information using the reference C1939). Online access is currently unavailable as the Library continues to recover from a significant cyber-attack; service status updates will be issued via the Library’s website.
- The National Lottery Community Fund, Voices from the pandemic (https://www.tnlcommunityfund.org.uk/insights/covid-19-resources/responding-to-covid-19/voices-from-the-pandemic-interviews-from-the-frontline)
A series of in-depth interviews with organisations working on the frontline during the pandemic. It explores in detail what grant holders have done, what they have learned and how they would advise others, based on their experiences in this crisis.
- National Museums Liverpool, COVID-19 Display (https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/stories/covid-19-display)
A collection of how local people from across Liverpool responded to, and were affected by, the COVID-19 pandemic. The items are accessioned into the Museum’s permanent collection, with some on display and others in their reserve collection for future display and research.
- National Museums Liverpool, My Home is My Museum (https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/my-home-my-museum#section--videos)
When museums and galleries closed their doors in 2020 due to the pandemic, the museum wanted to turn a negative into a positive. As a result, while they were off school during the first national lockdown, children were asked to create their own exhibition or gallery of artworks inspired by their own lives.
- National Museums Liverpool, My Story Liverpool (https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/learn/schools-home/my-story-liverpool)
A project which invited participants to bring to a session items and photos which represented the lockdown and pandemic for them to produce a personal ‘museum in a box’. The project worked with people that had experienced particular challenges during the pandemic.
- National Portrait Gallery, Hold Still (https://www.npg.org.uk/hold-still/hold-still-gallery/)
A community project created as a unique collective portrait of the UK during lockdown.
- National Portrait Gallery, Hold Still Community Exhibition (https://www.npg.org.uk/hold-still/hold-still-community-exhibition/)
A UK-wide exhibition, supported by the Co-op, created to share the images with as many people as possible across the UK and saw the final 100 portraits go on display in local communities for four weeks from 20 October 2020.
- North Somerset Council, ​Stories from the Isolated in Lockdown (https://www.librarieswest.org.uk/results?p_p_id=crDetailWicket_WAR_arenaportlet&p_p_lifecycle=1&p_p_state=normal&p_r_p_arena_urn%3Aarena_search_item_id=BX00148912&p_r_p_arena_urn%3Aarena_facet_queries=&p_r_p_arena_urn%3Aarena_agency_name=AUKLIBSWEST&p_r_p_arena_urn%3Aarena_search_item_no=8&_crDetailWicket_WAR_arenaportlet_back_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.librarieswest.org.uk%2Fsearch%3Fp_p_id%3DsearchResult_WAR_arenaportlet%26p_p_lifecycle%3D1%26p_p_state%3Dnormal%26p_r_p_arena_urn%253Aarena_search_item_id%3D180018171X%26p_r_p_arena_urn%253Aarena_facet_queries%3D%26_searchResult_WAR_arenaportlet_agency_name%3DAUKLIBSWEST%26p_r_p_arena_urn%253Aarena_search_item_no%3D8%26p_r_p_arena_urn%253Aarena_search_query%3Disolation%26p_r_p_arena_urn%253Aarena_search_type%3Dsolr%26p_r_p_arena_urn%253Aarena_sort_advice%3Dfield%253DpublicationDate_sort%2526direction%253DDescending%26_searchResult_WAR_arenaportlet_arena_member_id%3D80309794&p_r_p_arena_urn%3Aarena_search_query=isolation&p_r_p_arena_urn%3Aarena_search_type=solr&p_r_p_arena_urn%3Aarena_sort_advice=field%3DpublicationDate_sort%26direction%3DDescending&p_r_p_arena_urn%3Aarena_arena_member_id=80309794#)
​Scams outreach work​ carried out in conjunction with Age UK​, with elderly​ people at risk of falling victim to scams, to offer a creative outlet for them during the pandemic. The result was a booklet featuring their poems and memorable stories from their childhood, which is available at libraries across North Somerset.
- North Yorkshire Council, Remembering our Community Spirit during COVID-19 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5KjruXDlhU)
Video footage, recorded during the pandemic, of volunteers and the recipients of acts of kindness, and an interview with the Director of Public Health at the Council.
- Opus, in partnership with Sheffield City Council and Compassionate Sheffield, Stories From The Pandemic - A lasting testimony from Sheffield (https://www.sheffieldstoriesfromthepandemic.co.uk/documentary)
A city wide collaboration, the project sought to gather stories from the people of Sheffield to inform and strengthen Sheffield’s COVID-19 memorial plans. A 60 minute documentary was curated and screened using these stories. Fragments of these stories were also inscribed into a Willow Tree Memorial installed in Sheffield city centre. All of the stories in the documentary have been stored in the Sheffield City Archives to form a lasting testimony from Sheffield.
- People’s Collection Wales, COVID Digital Time Capsule (https://www.peoplescollection.wales/learn/covid-digital-time-capsule)
A project inviting schools across Wales to create digital contributions in 2020-2021. It explores daily life during the COVID-19 pandemic through photographs, recordings, and personal stories collected by students. The young people documented activities, interviewed family members, and shared their experiences online as a way of preserving a record of life during the pandemic.
- Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, ‘Stay Home’ Memories (https://www.communities-ni.gov.uk/news/stay-home-memories-archive-launched)
A public call for diaries, photos, artworks, videos and other personal records of how people lived through the COVID-19 lockdown in Northern Ireland, so the experience of the pandemic can be preserved as a collective memory for future generations.
- Queen’s University Belfast, Living Through the Covid Pandemic (https://quote.qub.ac.uk/living-through-the-covid-pandemic/)
A collection of personal stories and memories from Queen’s students reflecting on their experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic. It captures how the pandemic affected daily life, work and emotions, creating a lasting record to help future generations understand the human impact of the pandemic beyond official statistics.
- Remembering Together, Co-creating Covid Community Memorials (https://www.rememberingtogether.scot/)
Remembering Together ran from July 2021 until September 2024, commissioning artists in all 32 local authority areas in Scotland to co-create with their communities ways of honouring the people lost during the COVID-19 pandemic, and exploring how these communities want to collectively remember them. The archive is kept at the University of Stirling.
- Science Museum Group, Collecting Covid (https://www.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/projects/collecting-covid-19)
The Science Museum Group cares for one of the world’s most significant collections of science, technology, engineering and medicine. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic its curators have been researching stories and identifying objects to collect on the nation’s behalf. The report summarises the project highlights and outputs.
- Science Museum Group, Injecting Hope: The race for a COVID-19 vaccine (https://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/about-us/press-office/injecting-hope-race-covid-19-vaccine-premiere-science-museum)
A free exhibition on the science behind the COVID-19 vaccine, presented by the Science Museum Group.
- Science Museum Group, Online Catalogue (https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/search?q=covid)
A comprehensive online catalogue detailing the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic, including objects collected as part of ‘Collecting Covid’, a collection of over 900 objects on the nation’s behalf relating to the pandemic.
- Scottish COVID-19 Inquiry, Let’s Be Heard (https://www.covid19inquiry.scot/lets-be-heard)
The Scottish COVID-19 Inquiry’s public participation project which aims to give a voice to everyone who was impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic in Scotland between 2020 and 2022. In November 2024, Let’s Be Heard finished gathering people’s experiences of the pandemic. The team is now analysing the information people have shared to inform the Inquiry’s investigations and a series of publications will be made available in 2026.
- UK COVID-19 Inquiry, Commemorative Artwork (https://covid19.public-inquiry.uk/commemoration/commemorative-art/)
A series of photographs and artwork from across the UK, featuring images of memorial sites that commemorate those lost during the pandemic.
- UK COVID-19 Inquiry, These Days (https://tapestry.covid19.public-inquiry.uk/)
A series of four tapestries co-created by various artists and people or groups who were impacted by the pandemic, including the bereaved and individuals with Long Covid. They commemorate experiences and emotions at the time of the pandemic.
- University of Exeter, ‘I Remember: Exeter’s Memory of the Covid-19 Pandemic’ (https://sites.exeter.ac.uk/exeterpandemicmemory/i-remember-exeters-memory-of-the-covid-19-pandemic/)
An audiobook created by the University of Exeter in association with Exeter City Council and the Mayor’s Office. It was released in March 2025 to mark the fifth anniversary of the first lockdown, and draws together people’s varied pandemic experiences across the Exeter region.
- University of Manchester in partnership with the British Library, Voices of our National Health Service (https://sami.bl.uk)
As part of a wider research project focusing on the history of the UK’s National Health Service, this programme included a specific initiative focused on interviewing during the COVID-19 pandemic to record the stories of patients, staff and the public. ‘NHS Voices of Covid-19’ was funded by the AHRC from a UKRI rapid response call, and the interviews are archived as a significant subset of the wider project. The interviews can be accessed onsite at the British Library (search the Sound and Moving Image catalogue for information using the reference C1887). Online access is currently unavailable as the Library continues to recover from a significant cyber-attack; service status updates will be issued via the Library’s website.
- University of Oxford, Collecting COVID: Oral Histories (https://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/series/collecting-covid-oral-histories)
A series of oral history interviews commissioned by the University of Oxford’s Bodleian Libraries and History of Science Museum between 2021 and 2023, carried out by science writer and broadcaster, Georgina Ferry, with researchers and support staff across the University Oxford. They capture the story of the pandemic as seen through the eyes of those at the forefront of research to tackle the global health emergency.
- University of Stirling, Documenting the coronavirus pandemic (https://collections.stir.ac.uk/archive-collections/archive-collections-a-z/covid-19-pandemic-archive/)
The Pandemic Archive contains ephemera, videos, original periodicals and an extensive photographic archive gathered through rapid response and contemporary collecting from 2020 onwards. The archive also holds the University’s Pandemic Oral History Project which tells the story of the University’s own community in over 60 interviews with staff and students.
- V&A, All Will Be Well: Children’s Rainbows from Lockdown (https://www.vam.ac.uk/exhibitions/all-will-be-well)
A collection of drawings of rainbows made by children during the pandemic, which were paired with quotes from the creators to revisit the powerful moment when rainbows became an international signal of hope during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Other educational resources

These UK-based resources have been created by other (non-governmental) bodies, but are available for use by educators and other professionals.

Anna Freud - Mentally Healthy Schools (https://www.mentallyhealthyschools.org.uk/mental-health-information/) Mental health resources, information and advice for schools and further education settings.

The Oak National Academy (https://www.thenational.academy) Free teacher resources relating to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Economist Education Forum (https://talk.economistfoundation.org/resources/?keyword=covid#results) Includes some resources aimed at older students from 2023.

Times Education Supplement (https://www.tes.com/resources/search/?&q=covid) A range of resources for teachers and students, including enquiry lessons. Some of them cost a small amount (for example, £1).

Twinkl (https://www.twinkl.co.uk/) Teaching and educational resources relating to COVID-19.