The day terror came to London

---

It was around 9am on 7 July when I made my way to City Hall, near Tower Bridge in the heart of London, where Mayor Ken Livingstone has his office, for a work 'away-day'. I was feeling very proud of myself that I had managed to find my way via public transport and map to a place I had never been, in a city where I had only lived for 6 weeks. I was excited about the day ahead. All the communications staff at my new work place, the London Borough of Lewisham were there and I was looking forward to a day of interesting speakers and getting to know my colleagues better.

The morning had been quite a stressful one for me, frantically making phone calls and trying to work out how I was going to get an urgent advert approved when I was not in the office for the day. I was relieved to get that sorted and settled into my chair and awaited the first speaker, Len Duvall who is an MP and Member of the Metropolitan Police.

As we waited someone came in to tell us that there were problems with the tube and a few staff members had called to say they were going to be late. Nothing out of the ordinary, it happens every day in London. A bit later Len's PA came in to tell us that the were problems in London and the whole of the City centre had been shut down. Len was going to be a little late but would get here as soon as possible. We found this a bit surprising and were curious as to what was happening, but again found it nothing too out of the ordinary.

As time went by the messages got worse and worse. We were told there had been a power surge and the whole transport network had been shut down. Next we heard that there had been an explosion on a train and there may be some people injured. Make that three trains, and there were definitely multiple casualties, possible fatalities. Len would not be in to see us, he was heading straight to Scotland Yard.

We were given a talk by a media advisor who worked at City Hall and tried to concentrate and ask intelligent questions, but were somewhat distracted by what was happening around us. We were soon told the harrowing news that the explosions on the trains had been caused by bombs being detonated and a fourth bomb had exploded on a bus. It was likely that the bombs had been the work of terrorists.

There was no public transport running in the Capital, and the Police were requesting that people stay where they were so it was decided that we would continue on with our day as planned. The atmosphere in the room was surprisingly calm and a few of the Londoners told me that they were used to this kind of thing happening having lived through the years of the IRA bombings.

Many of the scheduled speakers weren't able to get to us so we set off on our tour of City Hall. As the magnitude of what was happening just a few kilometres away started to sink in we all started to think about out family and friends, and the tour turned into a trip to the emergency planning office to use their phones as trying to get calls in and out using mobiles phones was useless, the sytem was almost completely jammed.

I called Andrew to make sure he was safe at home and hadn't headed to work early. He was slightly bemused when I called and asked him if he was alright. I told him to turn on the television and it all became clear. I knew it was prime news time in Australia so asked him to call home and let our families know we were ok before any panicking started. I nearly burst into tears as the realisation that I was so close to danger set in. On a normal day I would have been at work in the suburbs of South East London, well away from harm, but as luck would have it that was not the case today. There was a strange mixture of feelings - of life going on as usual, and the event being something that we were watching on television, and a feeling that this was the City we live in and the trains we commute on and we may be in some danger.

My colleagues and I gathered back in the conference room and were given another very interesting talk by a campaign manager at the consumer watch dog 'Which'. I was glad of the diversion and the chance to have my mind taken off the chaos but a few of my colleagues were outraged that we would continue on with our seemingly trival matters when there were people dead and injured. They were keen to get home to their family and friends.

The television was on in the City Hall cafe so we gathered around to watch the story develop. People were still trying desparately to reach their family and friends and at one stage my colleague whose family live in Wimbledon, where we live, told me that there had been a bomb scare in the station there and that the whole town centre had been evacuated. She let me borrow her phone and I called Andrew to tell him not to leave the house. Panic started to set in as the danger felt closer and I wondered how I would ever get home.

Around midday we were told that City Hall was being evacuated of everyone except essential staff and we would have to leave. No-one was sure how they would get home and some colleagues kindly offered to take me to London Bridge Station with them and help me in the right direction. As we walked through a nearby shopping mall there were a group of men playing petanque on a strip of fake turf and people out on their lunchtime jog or eating in the cafes. It was a strange sight in light of the danger that was unfolding not too far away. But life really does go on, and everyone reacts differently when faced with shock and danger.

London Bridge station was quietly chaotic. All trains to the centre of London had been cancelled and many other services suspended, leaving queues of people trying to work out how they would get home, but no-one seemed to be panicing. The station staff were extremely helpful and strangers helped each other out where they could. I tried all the options I knew to get home but trains were getting cancelled by the minute and after half an hour of waiting I was told my best bet was to get on a train to Balham which was leaving then and work out what to do from there. I knew Balham was in vaguely the same direction as Wimbledon but that's as far as it went. I got on the train and called Andrew again to let him know where I was headed. The train made it as far as Streatham Hill and we were told that there was a bank up of trains going to Clapham Junction so we would be delayed. After more than 40 minutes we were told that Clapham Junction had been shut down due to a suspicious package and that the train would be going nowhere. I had no clue where Streatham Hill was but was lucky enough to emerge from the station and find a bus going to Wimbledon. After a long and frustrating bus trip home and over three hours after I'd left City Hall I made it back to Wimbledon. Walking along Wimbledon High Street you would have thought that it was just a normal day. People were out shopping and students were heading home from school, which I found quite surreal after the chaotic trip I had just endured. It was strange to have felt so close to danger and now feel like it was just a distant news story. I felt exhausted, drained and very glad to be back home with Andrew.

Over the next few days I was glued to the TV and papers as news of the bombers, the events and those searching for missing family and friends emerged. I couldn't turn away from the news but reached saturation point and decided I'd better try and forget about it for a while when I started having nightmares about being trapped on the tube. We kept a low profile for a while, searching out fun and excitement just didn't seem like the thing to do amidst all the fear and sadness. And the atmosphere in London felt more sombre than usual, tinged with grey. As selfish as it sounds I hoped that the vibrancy and buzz of London would soon return and life would return to normal, I had waited a long time to come and live here and didn't want it to be at a time when the shine from the City had been dulled. Those that had lost their lives and suffered were never far from my thoughts though and I knew that I was very lucky to have been spared and that they had paid the ultimate price for living in this great City, when it could so easily have been any one of us.

Luckily for me my journey to work is via overland trains, but in the following weeks even they were more quiet than usual, with an air of axiety and suspicion. People looked sideways at each other in a way they hadn't done before and there was a huge Police presence at every station. The week after the bombings I had to catch a peak-hour tube into the City which I was not looking forward to. I found it to be a horrible, tense and claustrophobic journey and I was very glad to reach the light of day.

But like they say Londoners are an extremely resilient and stoicle lot and even many of those caught up in the trains that exploded have returned to the tubes. I am sure in time London will return to its daily celebration of life once more and the tubes will be packed with busy commuters making their way about town.

---