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By (user no longer on site) OP
over a year ago
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So tomorrow marks the 10th anniversary of the London bombings. I will be off in my own thoughts about it. Remembering getting off the tube and calling my mum to say I was safe, my dad walking from London bridge to Notting Hill to collect me from work and us walking back across an eerily quiet London, shops closed and people walking the streets with nowhere to go. What are others memories of that day? |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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Started writing a long post and realised nothing I can say can ever make sense of the pointless loss of lives that happened that day.
My thoughts are with the family and friends of those who lost someone or who's lives changed forever. |
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Listening to it unfold and thinking this is big and then being busy at work, talking to colleagues who attended a couple of the actual incidents..
RIP to those who just went about their daily life and never went home.. |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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I was actually working about 2 miles away and had just the worse day ever!
After that week we both decided it was time to leave London as soon as possible, we'd just got tired of all of it.
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By *abioMan
over a year ago
Newcastle and Gateshead |
all sorts of things spring the mind...
was my day off from work... was in a brilliant mood... we'd won the olympics!!!
was watching the news and hearing about a big electrical incident that had knocked everything off on the underground.... it was only when the stuff happened in tavistock square that I realised that something more sinister had happened....
phoned mum.... She worked as a senior manager at Great Ormond Street... I had to tell her what was happening and they had not heard.. just as i got off the phone i heard sirens going off for there emergency incident plan to into action.... because GOS was the closest hospital for tavistock square (just around the corner... and the picadilly line train they turned parts of a childrens hospital into a temporary morgue
phoned work (at the time I was a customer services manager for east coast) they didn't have a clue.. just that kings cross was closed and the underground was off..... offered to come in on my day off, and they said stay where i was and keep my phone on as i was in a better place to give them information than i was there, which sounds weird in hindsight, but was absolutely right... it is weird being patching in on nationwide train operator calls at home... relaying info from the TV, giving that info to staff, having people panic on the main swinging website (it was my still my day off and i knew people that had gone in) and giving people information ... playing "point person" trying to get people in contact with each other since the telephone lines in london were gridlocked, relatives from american calling me to find out if i know everyone in london was okay because they couldn't get thru....
friends wise i got very lucky that day.... i had a friend on the picadilly line train behind at kings cross, my uncle was just getting off an overline train coming in, had an aunt turfed off the train at euston and was beginning to walk towards holborn when the bus exploded.... another 10 minutes and she would have been in the middle of it
the thing all of my friends who worked in central london say about that day is they all basically walked home... and no one grumbled... and the next day they all thought they would show they weren't scare by going about their lives
so tomorrow i have the day off... and in the morning i will quietly go to a church and light a candle.. and think about the 52 innocent people who went about their lives only not to come back |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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"all sorts of things spring the mind...
was my day off from work... was in a brilliant mood... we'd won the olympics!!!
was watching the news and hearing about a big electrical incident that had knocked everything off on the underground.... it was only when the stuff happened in tavistock square that I realised that something more sinister had happened....
phoned mum.... She worked as a senior manager at Great Ormond Street... I had to tell her what was happening and they had not heard.. just as i got off the phone i heard sirens going off for there emergency incident plan to into action.... because GOS was the closest hospital for tavistock square (just around the corner... and the picadilly line train they turned parts of a childrens hospital into a temporary morgue
phoned work (at the time I was a customer services manager for east coast) they didn't have a clue.. just that kings cross was closed and the underground was off..... offered to come in on my day off, and they said stay where i was and keep my phone on as i was in a better place to give them information than i was there, which sounds weird in hindsight, but was absolutely right... it is weird being patching in on nationwide train operator calls at home... relaying info from the TV, giving that info to staff, having people panic on the main swinging website (it was my still my day off and i knew people that had gone in) and giving people information ... playing "point person" trying to get people in contact with each other since the telephone lines in london were gridlocked, relatives from american calling me to find out if i know everyone in london was okay because they couldn't get thru....
friends wise i got very lucky that day.... i had a friend on the picadilly line train behind at kings cross, my uncle was just getting off an overline train coming in, had an aunt turfed off the train at euston and was beginning to walk towards holborn when the bus exploded.... another 10 minutes and she would have been in the middle of it
the thing all of my friends who worked in central london say about that day is they all basically walked home... and no one grumbled... and the next day they all thought they would show they weren't scare by going about their lives
so tomorrow i have the day off... and in the morning i will quietly go to a church and light a candle.. and think about the 52 innocent people who went about their lives only not to come back"
Fuck!! |
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By *evaquitCouple
over a year ago
Catthorpe |
"all sorts of things spring the mind...
was my day off from work... was in a brilliant mood... we'd won the olympics!!!
was watching the news and hearing about a big electrical incident that had knocked everything off on the underground.... it was only when the stuff happened in tavistock square that I realised that something more sinister had happened....
phoned mum.... She worked as a senior manager at Great Ormond Street... I had to tell her what was happening and they had not heard.. just as i got off the phone i heard sirens going off for there emergency incident plan to into action.... because GOS was the closest hospital for tavistock square (just around the corner... and the picadilly line train they turned parts of a childrens hospital into a temporary morgue
phoned work (at the time I was a customer services manager for east coast) they didn't have a clue.. just that kings cross was closed and the underground was off..... offered to come in on my day off, and they said stay where i was and keep my phone on as i was in a better place to give them information than i was there, which sounds weird in hindsight, but was absolutely right... it is weird being patching in on nationwide train operator calls at home... relaying info from the TV, giving that info to staff, having people panic on the main swinging website (it was my still my day off and i knew people that had gone in) and giving people information ... playing "point person" trying to get people in contact with each other since the telephone lines in london were gridlocked, relatives from american calling me to find out if i know everyone in london was okay because they couldn't get thru....
friends wise i got very lucky that day.... i had a friend on the picadilly line train behind at kings cross, my uncle was just getting off an overline train coming in, had an aunt turfed off the train at euston and was beginning to walk towards holborn when the bus exploded.... another 10 minutes and she would have been in the middle of it
the thing all of my friends who worked in central london say about that day is they all basically walked home... and no one grumbled... and the next day they all thought they would show they weren't scare by going about their lives
so tomorrow i have the day off... and in the morning i will quietly go to a church and light a candle.. and think about the 52 innocent people who went about their lives only not to come back"
.
Thank you for writing that Fabio, a lot of memories came flooding back for good and bad reasons. Very much appreciated. |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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Funny thing was I was working 2 miles away and could hear the sirens but couldn't see anything
I had five live on at work as normal and peter Allen was breaking the news and I'll never forget it was the weirdest thing and I've never seen it repeated anywhere, peter Allen was inter_iewing a guy who was in charge of the incident.... And he was saying they were practising a drill that morning for exactly what had happened while they were practising it |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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I remember this day all too well.. My mum and I were heading to Wellington barracks to visit my dad from kings x and for some reason she thought it'd be a great idea to get off (I through a fit at the time, now I thank her for it) two stops down before the Liverpool Street bombing. I still to this day can't remember or think why we got off when we did as we were heading for St James' Park. Not that I'm complaining now! I remember being chucked off a bus after the bus bombing had went off also and the whole of London at a stand-still, I even remember a random guy telling a bus driver that every person that had just been chucked off the bus would give him £100 just to carry on on the route.
Not a great day! RIP to all those who lost their lifes!! |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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cant believe its 10 years.. i was working at the channel tunnel project..we all got evacuated out of our building, stood miiling around,then heard/felt the bomb on the bus...not far away...and the subsequent days of having to walk through tv cables and past those heartbreaking missing posters was so sad..left me with a compelte phobia of those giant police horses...ended up doing huge detours to avoid them..sad sad day. |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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I was on an early train to London. It was ten mins late in Kings Cross. I missed being caught up in it.. Walked down to Euston..
Buses were full.. So I walked to Westminster area where I was meant to be. All of London shut rounds us. By the time we got out, I walked back to Euston, travelled via Birmingham on a full sombre slow train. There were so many going north, they sent a train down to collect us.
By the time I got home, I'd been awake 22 hours.
After that I did some humanitarian work, it felt right to me.
Thoughts and prayers today. |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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How we responded as a city made me proud to be a Londoner. RIP those who died, and there but for the grace of God go people like me who was on a tube at the time. |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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If I had been in the same place at the same time just one week later than I was I either wouldn't be here today or my life would have been very very different .
Watching events unfold on the news and desperately trying to contact my best friend to made sure she was safe made it all the more real that these were just normal fellow folk like you and I.
I couldn't imagine how awful it must have been for those innocent people who were caught up in it all one way or another. It was bad enough to watch from afar.
What I will say though is even amongst all of the devastation. Compassion, kindness and solidarity between the people shone through. We were all victims that day but we all stood together to make a point that we wouldn't let terrorism dictate to us or make us live in fear.
I have nothing but respect and admiration for the survivors and will spare a moment for those who weren't so lucky that terrible day. |
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I remember the windows shook when the bomb went off on the nearby bus.
Found out it was the bus my Mum usually gets and frantically trying to call her only to find out that, luckily, she had gone into work early that day.
I remember most people being in a state of shock and disbelief.
Horrible day.
- Amy. x |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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There's some good coverage online today remembering the stories and the lives of the people who died, those who were injured and survived and those who saved lives. I can't remember the names of the bombers, they had nothing good to bring to the world and they're rightly forgotten.
I was on holiday in Spain at the time, went to a bar and everyone British was glued to the rolling news. The image that really stuck with me, and I don't quite know why, is the blood on the walls of the British Medical association building in Tavistock Square. Still sends a chill down my spine now. |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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I was a Piccadilly line driver and had left the job the previous year. The driver of the train was from my depot. I had driven that train hundreds of times. I saw friends and colleagues on the news pushing trolleys with bodies on them and helping the injured.
I was a black cab driver and phoned some colleagues. We all drove into London and started to bring people home. Word got round and most black cab drivers were doing doing this. We were just piling as many people in the cab as possible and trying to get them as close to home as possible. The only payment we took was the odd cup of coffee or a cold drink. I can't remember what time I got home.
My overiding memory of that day is pride of how us Londoners pulled together and dealt with it and how dare those bastards do that to my home town.
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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I remember exactly where I was when the news broke out... I was 15 at the time and I was sat in a Science lesson at school. My teacher always let us have Radio 1 playing in the background. When the news came on she turned the radio up and the whole room went completely silent... Quite unusual, considering our class.
I've read a very touching Guardian article this morning, that lists all the victims and explains a little bit of their lives. I find that it serves a purpose of reminding us all that these were real people like us, going about their everyday lives.
RIP  |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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"I was a Piccadilly line driver and had left the job the previous year. The driver of the train was from my depot. I had driven that train hundreds of times. I saw friends and colleagues on the news pushing trolleys with bodies on them and helping the injured.
I was a black cab driver and phoned some colleagues. We all drove into London and started to bring people home. Word got round and most black cab drivers were doing doing this. We were just piling as many people in the cab as possible and trying to get them as close to home as possible. The only payment we took was the odd cup of coffee or a cold drink. I can't remember what time I got home.
My overiding memory of that day is pride of how us Londoners pulled together and dealt with it and how dare those bastards do that to my home town.
"
Well done you, I bet those people were so thankful for you help, I know I would be  |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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Jacqui Putman a survivor of the bomb at Edgware Road wrote.
"I don't want to sound as if I'm provoking anyone but my goodness if you want to frighten Londoners you are going to have to do a lot better than that "
Love her defiance.
I remember in the weeks that followed Facebook was full of pictures of people in front of Londons attractions holding banners saying "I am not afraid".
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By *ENGUYMan
over a year ago
Hull |
"I was a Piccadilly line driver and had left the job the previous year. The driver of the train was from my depot. I had driven that train hundreds of times. I saw friends and colleagues on the news pushing trolleys with bodies on them and helping the injured.
I was a black cab driver and phoned some colleagues. We all drove into London and started to bring people home. Word got round and most black cab drivers were doing doing this. We were just piling as many people in the cab as possible and trying to get them as close to home as possible. The only payment we took was the odd cup of coffee or a cold drink. I can't remember what time I got home.
My overiding memory of that day is pride of how us Londoners pulled together and dealt with it and how dare those bastards do that to my home town.
Well done you, I bet those people were so thankful for you help, I know I would be "
It is one of the typically British traits that stem from the days of WWII, that Spirit of the Blitz, when everyone pulled together and assisted where and when they could, shoulder to shoulder.
We get on with it all. To those who helped out that terrible day, we owe so much and Thanks seems so little.
To those whom we lost, RIP. |
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By *ugby 123Couple
over a year ago
Forum Mod O o O oo |
"I was a Piccadilly line driver and had left the job the previous year. The driver of the train was from my depot. I had driven that train hundreds of times. I saw friends and colleagues on the news pushing trolleys with bodies on them and helping the injured.
I was a black cab driver and phoned some colleagues. We all drove into London and started to bring people home. Word got round and most black cab drivers were doing doing this. We were just piling as many people in the cab as possible and trying to get them as close to home as possible. The only payment we took was the odd cup of coffee or a cold drink. I can't remember what time I got home.
My overiding memory of that day is pride of how us Londoners pulled together and dealt with it and how dare those bastards do that to my home town.
"
RIP to those not with us anymore |
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By *olgateMan
over a year ago
on the road to nowhere in particular |
I don't like Ken Livingstone but his speech after the bombing was spot on with how I felt. What should have been a day of celebration became a day of mourning.
A close friend of mine was behind the bus in Tavistock square. He was probably the closest person to it that escaped injury. He watched it explode in front of him and to this day I am still not sure if he really comprehends what actually happened or how lucky he was to escape without a scratch.
Mr Polk was right in what he said. While scabs and chancers did their best to rip off desperate people trying to get home, thousands of Londons black cabbies came into town to help people the best they could. Many did shuttle journeys up and down Oxford street to help people connect with buses to take them home.
Within a few hours, parts of the underground network unaffected by the atrocities were up and running again.
Going back to the 1800's when the first terrorist attacks happened (when the term terrorist was first coined) Londoners have never laid down to terrorists! |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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"Going back to the 1800's when the first terrorist attacks happened (when the term terrorist was first coined) Londoners have never laid down to terrorists!"
We shall defend every village, every town and every city. The vast mass of London itself, fought street by street, could easily devour an entire hostile army; and we would rather see London laid in ruins and ashes than that it should be tamely and abjectly enslaved.
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I was working as a receptionist at the time in a community centre in london. All our providers started calling in and saying there were no trains or buses running so I started looking at the news.
It was horrific.
The poor souls who lost their lives that day. And those with life changing injuries. Plus the survivors who suffer PTSD with no help...Bastard terrorists won't win! |
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"So tomorrow marks the 10th anniversary of the London bombings. I will be off in my own thoughts about it. Remembering getting off the tube and calling my mum to say I was safe, my dad walking from London bridge to Notting Hill to collect me from work and us walking back across an eerily quiet London, shops closed and people walking the streets with nowhere to go. What are others memories of that day? "
I was there. I'd rather not think about it. |
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Mine was visiting a relative in Redhill hospital, having to search for them as the hospital was put on stand by to receive injured from the London bombings. They moved patients about to ensure the emergency ward was made closest to the helipad.
It was funny in one aspect, you know something was going on by the hive of activity going on, but the hospital staff seemed to make sure that everyone was calm and relaxed. |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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I was with a friend who was waiting to be picked up for a hospital appt in London. He received a call saying it was cancelled, something had happened in London.
My parents were also travelling 300 miles up north to see a very ill family member who died before they got there.
I remember coming home and just watching all the news reports. Sometime after that a local radio station hads a minutes silence followed by Michael Jacksons Earth Song. I remember being in my car parked up for the minutes silence. Hearing the song I was just thinking "Why why why???"
R.I.P all those poor people  |
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See. In retrospect.
If you'd've said that there was gonna be an attack on public transport in London I suspect that anyone polled would have put the probable death-toll in the hundreds...
It was a terrible thing (and it was almost re-run the following week)...
But the fact of the matter remains that your chances of dying at the hands of the police are 7 times greater than from a terrorist attack in the UK.
I'm not trying to be facetious - I remember it too well - but at the same time I think some perspective is also important. |
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By *icketysplitsWoman
over a year ago
Way over Yonder, that's where I'm bound |
I can't say what I was doing that day but my abiding memory is of London being great and pulling together.
A colleague was on the bus. She was in the front and walked away physically unharmed.
A business acquaintance was on the tube and lost a leg.
The next day London got up and went to work and I saw a brown man with a backpack getting on the tube. He had pinned a sign to it saying "Please don't freak, I'm a Sikh".
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