Question for Londoners and the Tube

[DuctTapeDuchess]

I was in London today (im not a local) and got the tube to Livwepool St station. As I'd come up the escalator and the entrance to the street came into sight, the station sirens all went off and an automated voice over the tannoy told us to evacuate the station. As I could see daylight, I didn't panic too much but made my way out sharpish. Bit it seemed like no-one else gave a shit?! 🤣

Is this a common occurrence? A malfunctioning alarm system? Or are London people just too cool to immediately follow a loud, dramatic order?

I was a little bit rattled but bemused at the same time - whats that about?

Lived in London 12 years and I've never heard this. It may be common at this station, but I'd just get on with it.

It was probably a test.
It might have been announced a few minutes before so some of the people were expecting it.

@DuctTapeDuchess to add - it's not a London thing to ignore evacuation/fire alarms.
I worked in a shopping mall in the Midlands. Alarms would go off and most people would ignore it and not leave until an actual human told them to.

Ever been in a hotel with a fire alarm during the night? I have three times (Southampton/Newcastle/Manchester).

We got out about 10-15 minutes before anyone else - in one case with two under 5s, because everyone stopped to repack their suitcase, get dressed, stick their head out of the door and decide there was no immediate rush because they couldn't see fire, wander upstairs to see what the rest of their family thought...

Firemen were there on two occasions (third was false alarm and they got it off pretty quickly with some interesting language about the occupants not smoking...)
before the majority were outside and they were very unimpressed, but apparently this wasn't atypical.

People don't tend to respond unless they see an immediate need.

Edited to add: And the number of people who once they realised it was a genuine fire tried to go back in to get their things was ridiculous.

I was at Whitechapel a few weeks back , the tannoy said to evacuate .
No-one was in the least bit bothered ,
No idea if it was a fault , a practice or a real incident !

I had this happen a few months ago - I think in South Kensington. There were no staff about and nobody had a clue what was happening.
I complained to TFL and they replied saying it was a test.Absolutely crazy way to test - if there is a real need to evacuate, people are just going to ignore the announcement!

It was probably a test. It happens at Earls Court all the time. You see a couple of panicked tourists running for the exit and everyone else just carries on!

Yes, this has happened to me several times - I’ve lived in London for 35 years. No one panics or rushes. It may be a test or it may be a situation easily resolved behind the scenes.