London 7/7 - 10 Years Ago

[Frutos]

I really can't believe it's been 10 years already, I can remember exactly where I was and what I was doing when I found out as if it were yesterday.

Thoughts with the families of those killed.

 

[Hillian1]

I was driving up the A23 on my way to Morden to get a tube into London when it started to break on the radio, Power Surges all over the Underground they kept saying.

 

[Gwylan]

I was working about 200m from Tavistock Square when the bus bomb went off - we heard it in our office. There was a cacophony of sirens from multiple emergency vehicles, that's when we knew something had happened. No-one could get any work done; our company sent us home at lunchtime. Walking through the streets was an eerie experience, people's faces were drawn and tense: there was still a fear that other bombs were about to go off.

No tubes and very few trains were running. I remember that it took me nearly five hours to get home and was so relieved to get back. Found out a few days later that one of my former work colleagues (and a former colleague of HB&B too) had lost his leg in one of the blasts - that really brought it home to me.

Thinking of those people who didn't make it home and the others who still bear the scars

 

[DIFFBROOK]

We were travelling down from Leeds to London Kings Cross. Original plan was to get 6.30am train that would have got us into Kings Cross and the KX tube towards Russell Square at 8.30ish. Thankfully, I couldn't get public transport from my home to Leeds that early, so we got later train that got us into Kings Cross at 9am.

Change of plans meant we were safe. Similarly, change of plans possibly doomed others.

When we got out of KIngs Cross Railway station we too were told of a power surge. My wife in Leeds was frantic with worry as mobile phones didn't work due to the overload on the network. Only got through to her when we arrived in our office at Whitehall.

Took a long time getting back to Leeds. No trains running from London. Took a taxi to Peterborough, then train to Leeds.

A terrible day. What did the bombers achieve? Nothing. They died a fruitless death. Waste of time any of them being born.

 

[atfc village]

Was working in Teddington and just remember lots of sirens getting into Town .Next day going through some very tight security at Portsmouth on the way to Le Harve.

 

[grummitts gloves]

I worked at Tavistock Square for 12 days as part of the post blast scene examination team. Toughest job I've ever had to do. R.I.P. the 52.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Was working in Holborn at the time. Here's the blog entry I wrote when I got home that evening...

Bad Day In London
'So it finally arrived. The Big One. London’s cheque in the post that we all knew was coming. Don’t know why, but one of the saddest aspects was that we weren’t even allowed a full 24 hours to enjoy the innocent happiness of being the plucky underdogs that won the 2012 Olympics from under the noses of the arrogant French bid. ****it, the successful bid team weren’t even off the plane back from Singapore when the bombs struck. Mundane station names that you pass through on the tube, or get off at for contracts, or met friends at for evening or lunchtime drinks. Aldgate East. Liverpool Street. Kings Cross. Everyday names, everyday places. But not today. Hardly logged on at work and the news started filtering through, first from Sky, then The Evening Standard online, then lagging til they triple checked their facts, the BBC. First it was a ‘bang at Liverpool Street’ then a single ‘power surge’ on the tracks, then FIVE ‘power surges’ on the tracks at different stations across the tube networks, then a ‘bang’ on a bus. At which point everybody knew it for what it was. The Big One. Our 9/11. Our Madrid. The tube network shut down. The buses shut down. The mobile phone networks shut down. The London Stock Exchange shut down. And all the time, former colleagues who work half a mile up the road were calling in, grumbling about being evacuted or being locked in and made to sit on the floor. I got mails from Aberdeen and Australia asking if I was OK. I phoned my mum so she could hear my voice. She’s lost one son already this year, just felt that I had to let her know in as low-key a way as possible that she hadn’t lost another. Well not today anyway. Our team of six all went out to the Pasty Shop together at lunchtime, walked - down the middle of the road - down Chancery Lane. Normally we wouldn’t get five yards before being zapped by a car. But there was practically zero traffic, few lunchtime office workers, the quietest I’ve ever seen London this side of the opening scenes of ’28 Days Later’. It was almost silent. I left work just after lunch. It suddenly seemed very important to get home. I walked two miles to London Bridge, soaking to the skin under dark skies. Jumped on a tortuously slow train that wove it’s way through every slum in South London. Walked from West Croydon to East Croydon and squeezed aboard the very short, very late train to Brighton which – thank you! – actually stopped at Preston Park. Stepped off the train into a blue sky and warm sunshine. Others were not so lucky. I’ve never felt so happy to hear the train companies apologies for ‘severe delays’ due to ‘several incidents in London’. For once I could have hugged them.'

 

[Thunder Bolt]

Was working in Teddington and just remember lots of sirens getting into Town .Next day going through some very tight security at Portsmouth on the way to Le Harve.

Three things stand out in my mind from that time. We won the Olympics, the attacks the following day, then going to Portsmouth for the ferry to Le Harvre, seeing armed police at the ferry port. It was surreal.

 

[Insel affe]

We lived in Camden at the time I and the good lady were supposed to be on the tubes around then as we had flights booked at midday to fly to Spain for a Psychobilly weekender. However I had lost my passport and we could not go after tearing the flat apart all the night before looking for them. We resigned our self to just not going anyway as the day unfolded it was just horrible, we went into Camden to get hammered later in the afternoon and people were walking everywhere in daze trying to get home, also I seem to recall people moaning about reception on their mobiles being terrible not sure if the old bill were blocking airwaves or something. Just a horrible feeling of numbness around town that day and for weeks after. Funny thing if there could be was I found my passport on the Sunday morning...

 

[grummitts gloves]

We lived in Camden at the time I and the good lady were supposed to be on the tubes around then as we had flights booked at midday to fly to Spain for a Psychobilly weekender. However I had lost my passport and we could not go after tearing the flat apart all the night before looking for them. We resigned our self to just not going anyway as the day unfolded it was just horrible, we went into Camden to get hammered later in the afternoon and people were walking everywhere in daze trying to get home, also I seem to recall people moaning about reception on their mobiles being terrible not sure if the old bill were blocking airwaves or something. Just a horrible feeling of numbness around town that day and for weeks after. Funny thing if there could be was I found my passport on the Sunday morning...

The mobile networks crashed through shear volume of 'traffic'. They weren't blocked. We could only get intermittent signal as well.

 

[Beach Hut]

I actually flew to Manchester for the day from Gatwick to meet my manager and a supplier instead of travelling to London.

Terrible day and RIP those that lost their lives.

 

[Insel affe]

The mobile networks crashed through shear volume of 'traffic'. They weren't blocked. We could only get intermittent signal as well.

It was one or the other, rumours were rife that day and that was one, "that the police had blocked airwaves so no more bombs could go off". People knew very little in London on that day, they did not know were the next attack was going to come from or be.

 

[Gwylan]

I worked at Tavistock Square for 12 days as part of the post blast scene examination team. Toughest job I've ever had to do. R.I.P. the 52.

That must have been one grim job. Respect.

 

[Gazwag]

Thoughts with the families of those killed.

And those who didn't but still suffer today from their injuries, physically and psychologically

 

[Frutos]

And those who didn't but still suffer today from their injuries, physically and psychologically

Absolutely.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Lighter footnote to the following day, 8/7, which was a Friday. Got normal train up to town, got a double seat to myself (the two seats opposite were empty also). Guess most people thought a long weekend was called for at that point. Very strange feeling. Got on a near enough deserted Circle Line train at Victoria, this in the peak of what is normally the morning rush hour. Just before the doors close, three police officers armed with automatic rifles board the train, look the carriage up and down and make a bee-line for an innocuous-looking bloke sat by himself in the corner. At which point one of the officers shouts out 'Hi Dave, what you doing here?'. To which, innocuous bloke sat by himself in the corner mutters back 'Shut up you idiots, I'm supposed to be undercover!'

 

[Soulman]

I was working on the K2 building at Crawley. RIP the 52 and thoughts for all those affected.

 

[Earlsfield Seagull]

I cant believe it was 10 years ago. Was working in a building on the Southbank overlooking the city at the time. All you could see were helicopters circling and the constant sound of police sirens, but there was very little other noise as I recall. Another poster mentioned the eerie feeling on the streets that day which I remember vividly, lots of people I think were in shock at what had happened but also there was the worry on everyone's minds about what else might happen. The emergency services and public transport staff did an amazing job to get people home safely, but people also behaved impeccably from what I saw, no one complained or pushed and everyone wanted to help each other out.
Thoughts with those who were lost or hurt and their families today - they were just going about their business like we all do every day.