Looking around the deserted offices and half-empty commuter trains, you could think that we've surreptitiously moved towards the European tradition of disappearing from the cities for a month-long August break.
Meetings at work are called off, telephones ring in empty rooms and answering machines shrug their shoulders. Even if people are not going away on holiday themselves, there is still a sense, that like Christmas and New Year, normal service has been suspended.
Instead of a frantic fortnight's holiday, it seems as though more of us are taking a longer, more leisurely break. And perhaps it might be wishful thinking, but it could be that taking a slower-paced holiday could mean a lower burn-out rate on the holiday money and credit cards.
If August is becoming an unofficial month-long holiday, it could be the latest stage in our collective passion for travel. Because we really have become a nation of holidaymakers, travelling more often, further away and for longer than ever before - clocking up 60m trips abroad between us last year.
Travel figures from the Office for National Statistics, up to the first half of 2003, show yet another year-on-year increase in the number of trips taken abroad - up by 3%, with spending up by 8% which is all the more surprising against a backdrop of the Iraq conflict and fears over international terrorism.
Even before the summer splurge, we've been spending more than £2.3bn per month on travel this year, with the total number of nights away up by more than a third compared with 1997. And if you look back further, the Association of British Travel Agents (Abta) says that the number of holiday trips taken abroad has more than quadrupled since 1979.
Abta also says that if it feels like everyone has left the country this August, it's because this year's summer holiday bookings have been left to the last minute, and that there is now a sudden rush abroad.
But if more people really are disappearing for all of August, it could be as much to do with a change in travel habits. Within this widening of the numbers of travellers has been a greater diversification in the type of holiday.
We're not just going for a fortnight of booze and sunburn on a Mediterranean beach. Instead more people are travelling further afield, to places that would once have seemed far too exotic for tourism. According to the Office for National Statistics, in the past year, there has been a 12% increase in trips to destinations outside Europe and north America.
The travel trade has called this the "Palin effect", where quiet types from the Home Counties set off for the Sahara desert with as little fuss as if they were going to Devon for a walking holiday. And these long-distance travellers want more than a fortnight away and are using more of their annual leave in a single large chunk.
There are also more people in the types of jobs that allow a longer break. It used to be the preserve of senior doctors, chief executives and politicians to head off for August, but now these can be joined by the ranks of the self-employed, freelances teleworkers and assorted flexible types who are not constricted to a fortnight on the rota.
The Institute of Directors, although saying that a more staggered approach to holidays is better for business, also points to other employees who might disappear as a part of a summer migration.
When Westminster closes down for the summer, the small army of advisers, spinners, consultants, publicists and lobbyists that hang on the coat-tails of government have no need to stay in the capital. And in turn, the businesses that feed off them may as well shutdown for August.
Perhaps it's a case of wanting to convince ourselves, but there's also a case for saying that longer holidays are not necessarily more expensive. Many holiday costs, such as air fares, are not going to cost any more with a longer break. And being flexible over return dates can save money on flights.
I also have a personal theory that the first 24 hours on holiday are always the most expensive, involving getting ripped off by the cab driver at the airport, getting suckered into a horribly over-priced restaurant and a breakneck feeling that you have to cram as much into as little time as possible.
It's only when you begin to slow down and get your bearings that you can start to find a better-value way of spending your time and cash, discovering where the locals eat, avoiding the tourist traps and working out how to use public transport.
And even though there are increased costs for longer stays, particularly accommodation, there is a pattern of spending less over longer stretches. Anyone who has been on a weekend break will know how much cash you can get through when you know that time is limited.
If you want to see a group of people who have already pioneered the long affordable holiday, look at teachers. With long summer holidays and modest budgets, they have mastered the art of the camp site, the slow drive across the continent, shopping as they travel, and the sense that they don't have to see everything at once.
Anyway, let's be honest, who really wants to do any work in August?
