7/7 bombing Anniversary

My sister in law who was a peripatetic teacher at the time knew one of the bombers who was also involved in teaching. No hint, she said, of extreme views.
 
Some very well done documentaries on this at the moment on Netflix and BBC.

One of those you remember where you were moments. I was in work and at that time we only had one PC that connected to the internet. Must have been around 30 of us stood round it watching the news come through. I’d forgotten just how many had lost their lives until I watched the Netflix one.
 
11 years old at the time. I remember it very well. A family friend had literally gone to London that day with his school on a trip. This was in the days before 4G and even 3G, and before everyone had phones. We had an anxious wait of about seven hours before the school phoned round saying everyone was fine.

Years later I met my partner - she grew up round Wembley and her dad used to work in the city. She told me one of the tubes hit was the one her dad took to work every morning, the one on the Piccadilly Line between King's Cross St Pancras and Russell Square. He was just late that morning and had missed it.

In my weird 11-year-old mind, I remember thinking the attacks were some kind of revenge from France because London had been awarded the Olympics (instead of Paris) the previous day. Live 8 had only just gone ahead that weekend as well. It's incredible to think these three major events all happened within about 48-72 hours of each other.
 
youngbob said:
11 years old at the time. I remember it very well. A family friend had literally gone to London that day with his school on a trip. This was in the days before 4G and even 3G, and before everyone had phones. We had an anxious wait of about seven hours before the school phoned round saying everyone was fine.

Years later I met my partner - she grew up round Wembley and her dad used to work in the city. She told me one of the tubes hit was the one her dad took to work every morning, the one on the Piccadilly Line between King's Cross St Pancras and Russell Square. He was just late that morning and had missed it.

In my weird 11-year-old mind, I remember thinking the attacks were some kind of revenge from France because London had been awarded the Olympics (instead of Paris) the previous day. Live 8 had only just gone ahead that weekend as well. It's incredible to think these three major events all happened within about 48-72 hours of each other.
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I was 11-years-old also, and remember finding out at school. Everyone was saying that it was revenge from the French for the Olympics around school.

Crazy to think it’s been 20-years. I went down to London for a flight a few weeks after and remember the tense feeling around everywhere.
 
A reminder that a clash of civilisations 1000s of miles away does not happen in isolation - the hatred finds it's way to reach out to us all. RIP.
 
Whenever I visit London or use the Metrolink I am always weighing up Asians with rucksacks.

I know you can not be a racist but that is what the 7/7 bombing has left indelibly in my memory.
 
Guy I used to work with, on his way to the office in London, when Tavistock place went up, he wandered around, taking pics ( he had a digital camera with him) of the injured and dying. Sold them to reuters and still gets royalties. And yeah, I did seriously question him about perhaps stopping and helping some of the poor souls...he wasn't mithered. We fell out.
 
Was working in West Sussex and had arranged to meet my then partner in Midlands before driving down to Devon. Was due to travel via London King's Cross on the morning of it. Saw the news reports and phoned National Rail enquiries who at that stage were still advising travel via London. Arranged to meet my partner in Devon and I would travel by train along the coast via Salisbury etc. I remember armed police on almost every train station till I reached Exeter. I remember visiting London on few occasions shortly afterwards and the tube stations and buses had an eerie feel about them. Crazy to think it was 20 years ago
 
MillionMilesAway said:
In my case, next to the bus, on the 2nd floor. At a guess 30-50 feet away.
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Was with a colleague in a taxi that had just turned into Tavistock Square when the bomb went off, so a bit further away than you. A policewoman shepherded us down towards the Holiday Inn Bloomsbury where we were fairly quickly moved upstairs, the TV was still reporting everything as electrical explosions on the tube at that point so we were able to phone our wives and explain what was actually happening and that we were safe before the full news broke and the mobile network collapsed. We were kept upstairs well into the afternoon which we couldn't understand given we'd already provided our details and basic statements, what we didn't realise till later was that downstairs was being used as a temporary medical centre and sadly worse. By the time we were let out most people had left London and it was pretty much deserted, I had to walk to Waterloo, it was utterly surreal especially going over the near empty bridge.
 
threespires said:
Was with a colleague in a taxi that had just turned into Tavistock Square when the bomb went off, so a bit further away than you. A policewoman shepherded us down towards the Holiday Inn Bloomsbury where we were fairly quickly moved upstairs, the TV was still reporting everything as electrical explosions on the tube at that point so we were able to phone our wives and explain what was actually happening and that we were safe before the full news broke and the mobile network collapsed. We were kept upstairs well into the afternoon which we couldn't understand given we'd already provided our details and basic statements, what we didn't realise till later was that downstairs was being used as a temporary medical centre and sadly worse. By the time we were let out most people had left London and it was pretty much deserted, I had to walk to Waterloo, it was utterly surreal especially going over the near empty bridge.
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That hotel's got a bit open ground floor and ambulances next door, I think.

My window was open, I turned in time to see the bus roof go past and then a big black cloud of smoke coming - we were set back a little from the road.

We got hustled out of the back door, and went to someone's flat and watched the news as the TV and the Home Secretary said different things. The boss bullied her way back in to the office to collect coats and bags, and then around 1 ish, we went home. Walked halfway (3, 3.5 miles maybe) and then caught a bus and another bus. Dozed off on both buses, and am pretty convinced that was concussion.

Woke up in the morning with whiplash and temporary loss of hearing in one ear.

I'm fairly certain that the mobile network is turned off so the emergency services can use it all.
 
MillionMilesAway said:
That hotel's got a bit open ground floor and ambulances next door, I think.

My window was open, I turned in time to see the bus roof go past and then a big black cloud of smoke coming - we were set back a little from the road.

We got hustled out of the back door, and went to someone's flat and watched the news as the TV and the Home Secretary said different things. The boss bullied her way back in to the office to collect coats and bags, and then around 1 ish, we went home. Walked halfway (3, 3.5 miles maybe) and then caught a bus and another bus. Dozed off on both buses, and am pretty convinced that was concussion.

Woke up in the morning with whiplash and temporary loss of hearing in one ear.

I'm fairly certain that the mobile network is turned off so the emergency services can use it all.
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Yes that makes total sense re. the phone network. I remember under the main sound there was quite a deep almost thud like quality to the explosion too so I'm not surprised if you had concussion being that close.

It was not far off 4pm when we were let out which is why I think everywhere was so eerily quiet. The local Tesco had brought in a pallet of their sandwiches which I assume were for the emergency workers but someone was considerate enough to send some up to the people upstairs, weird what strange details you remember.
 
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