(Repeats to remove topic code, no changes to the text)
* English shops and pub gardens reopen as lockdown eases
* Hundreds of people queue for Primark and JD Sports
* Drinkers lift a pint after midnight as pubs open
* It's like a birthday - hairdresser says
By Carl Recine and Kate Holton
BIRMINGHAM, England, April 12 (Reuters) - People queued up
outside retailers across England on Monday to release their
pent-up shopping fever and some grabbed a midnight pint or even
an early haircut as England's shops, pubs, gyms and hairdressers
reopened after three months of lockdown.
After imposing the most onerous restrictions in Britain's
peacetime history, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the
reopening was a "major step" towards freedom but urged people to
behave responsibly as the coronavirus was still a threat.
As the sun rose, dozens of people queued up outside Primark
in English cities such as Birmingham and outside JD
Sports on Oxford Street in London, undeterred by the
unseasonably cold weather.
Some folk lined up after midnight to raise a pint with
fellow revellers at the Kentish Belle in Bexleyheath, south
London, and at the Oak Inn in Coventry, central England.
"I'm so excited to see my clients: to see how they are and
give them that feeling that they get from having had their hair
done," Maggie Grieve, who manages Beaucatcher hairdressers in
north London, told Reuters.
"Today is going to feel like every hairdresser's birthday.
The well-wishers have already come in: emails, texts, WhatsApps,
even neighbours in the street wishing luck and joy. It feels
great. Now can't wait to get to the pub," Grieve said.
Getting people spending again is crucial for Britain's
recovery after official data showed that 2020 was the worst year
for its economy in more than three centuries with a 9.8% decline
in gross domestic product.
Hundreds of thousands of businesses have been closed since
early January when England entered a third lockdown to stem
surging infections driven by the "Kent" variant of the virus.
A vaccination campaign that has delivered a first shot to
well over half of adults and lockdown measures have cut deaths
by more than 95% and cases by over 90% from the January peak.
'BEHAVE RESPONSIBLY'
Industry lobby group, the British Retail Consortium,
estimates UK stores have lost 27 billion pounds ($37 billion) in
sales over three lockdowns, while 67,000 retail jobs were shed
in 2020 alone.
Some 17,532 chain store outlets vanished from high streets,
shopping centres and retail parks across the UK last year,
according to data compiled by researcher the Local Data Company
for accountancy firm PwC.
"I'm sure it will be a huge relief for those business owners
who have been closed for so long, and for everyone else it's a
chance to get back to doing some of the things we love and have
missed," Johnson said in a statement on Sunday.
"I urge everyone to continue to behave responsibly and
remember 'hands, face, space and fresh air' to suppress COVID as
we push on with our vaccination programme."
With more than 127,000 fatalities, the United Kingdom has
the fifth highest death toll in the world from COVID-19.
Non-essential stores, such as home and fashion chains, will
reopen in Wales as well as England on Monday, although those in
Scotland need to wait until April 26.
Pubs and restaurants will only be able to serve outdoors
from Monday, although early rules requiring meals to be served
with drinks and curfews have been scrapped.
Indoor service will not be allowed until May 17 at the
earliest.
($1 = 0.7296 pounds)
(Writing by Paul Sandle, James Davey and Guy Faulconbridge;
additional reporting by Andrew Boyers in Warwick and Kate Holton
in London. Editing by Jane Merriman and Raissa Kasolowsky)