London had a little visit from some suicide bombers.
The bombers, of course, failed utterly in their strategic objective. Britain - and London in particular - has suffered at the hands of scumbags worse than they. Which is scant consolation for all those who died.
Let us remember.
Wow, it’s been 5 years?
I’d been in London 2 months when it happened, and had been running a little late that day - was on the Jubilee line at 8.53 and they’d just evacuated Bond St because of a ‘power surge’. We crawled through a deserted station. Only when I got to work and lots of other people had been delayed on different lines did we think something was up. Feeling a little spooked, I texted family at home to let them know I was OK, and then we heard about the bus - at which point we knew something big was happening.
We were in the same building as American Express, so got sent home. With the Tube shut I walked from Southwark to Selfridges, before I finally plucked up the courage to take a bus the rest of the way home. I do remember that everything was shut except the pubs, and on that lovely sunny afternoon they were packed. A real insight into the stiff upped lip London mindset following years of the IRA. Thinking of the 52 people who lost their lives.
That weekend I was at a party and two of the invitees stopped by only to say that they couldn’t stay because they were on their way to identify one of the bodies. :eek:
I’m a little surprised I haven’t heard more about this, although I’m going in to the West End after work so I wonder if there will be any commemoration there. Having said that, I haven’t watch the news yet today.
I’m staying in Bloomsbury at the moment and I note people have left flowers at the site of the bombing.
The government decided not to get involved this year. There’s been low-key events at each station as usual and many of the families and survivors have visited there or the small ceremony in Hyde Park. TfL have been providing help where they can but otherwise I think the message is that it’s business as usual for London.
(aka SD)
I had arrived the day prior. My wife was on a business trip to London, so I tagged along for some sightseeing. I was walking from our hotel (near the Embankment) toward the British Museum when I heard the first police car siren. They’re not all that common (in my limited experience), so it really caught my attention. Then another, then a couple of police motorcycles whizzed by, and then I heard a helicopter somewhere overhead. I happened to be passing an electronics store where a number of people were crowded around TVs, so I joined them. We watched for a half-hour or so, and it became clear to me that any sightseeing I had planned for that day would be troublesome at best, so I went back to the hotel and watched the news all day.
I have to say, I was really impressed by the reactions of the authorities, the media, and regular people. I suppose y’all have a lot more experience with this sort of thing than we do, but I was just wonderfully impressed by the lack of panic, histrionics, or rampant speculation by most. The newsreaders and reporters seemed much less prone to guessing and more likely to simply say, “we don’t know” than the American media, as were various authorities in the press conferences I was watching. I am pretty certain we would not have been nearly so calm in the States.
The very next day I did go to the British Museum. As I was about to leave, they shut the doors and security personnel asked us to remain where we were for the time being. Again, everyone just took it in stride. Nobody panicked, nobody complained, nobody tried to bluster their way out with tales of their importance. After 15 minutes or so we were told the coast was clear, and that we should enjoy the rest of our day. It turns out that a couple of young ladies fresh off an airplane from China were so anxious to get to the museum that they didn’t even drop their luggage off at the hotel. It would, however, be silly to drag it through the museum, so they chained their bags to the fence outside the museum. :smack:
I was due to head up to London on 7/7 for an end of project party. As news filtered through it was obvious that the event was going to be cancelled, and booked hotel rooms were reassigned to city staff who were unable to travel.
The project party was rescheduled for 21/7. I didn’t get to that one, either.
Si