7/7 - where were you?

[CuppaTeaAndAJammieDodger]

Just realised it's the 7th anniversary of the 7/7 London bombings tomorrow.

I haven't thought about that day for some time now, but for a long time after there wasn't much else I could think about. Here's my recollection of the day.

I was on my way to a primary school outside of London to do some user testing for a course my company had developed and was en route between Bethnal Green, where I lived, and Waterloo.

I walked in to Liverpool Street Station and down in to the ticket area of the tube and made my way on to the eastbound platform just as a circle line train was pulling in. I was running pretty early so decided to grab a can of coke to wake me up from the kiosk on the platform, and let that train go by without me. Not long after the train had fully left the station there was a whooshing sound, soon followed by (which really stayed with me) a smell of burning (plastic or something).

A kind of controlled panic ensued, nobody knew what had happened, we all started getting off the platform as quickly as possible and the staff were ushering everyone out of the station. by the time I managed to get outside the emergency services were arriving. I had no idea what to do so just started walking to Waterloo, desperately trying to get a news feed up on my phone to see what was going on (this was 2005 - no smart phones back then!) but couldn't. It wasn't until I arrived at Waterloo that I found out what had happened and was told that I could leave London, but I wouldn't be getting back in today, so I decided to cancel the testing, make my way home and work from there.

I started to make my way, again on foot (public transport had obviously completely shut down), but every street I walked down seem to be being cordoned off by the police and I found myself walking further and further trying to find a route, then it started raining. Finally I managed to get to Bethnal Green Road after walking for what felt like hours, my mum managed to get through to me on my mobile after hours of trying, as soon as I heard her voice I just sat down on the curb and started crying - the gravity of the situation just hit me.

Took me a while to realise that that decision to have a can of coke could have potentially saved my life (dependent on what carriage I'd got on of course) - the ironic thing is I don't drink the stuff any more as I can't have caffeine due to panic attacks/anxiety issues.

Wow - that was long, sorry if I've bored you to death! That was the first time I've written down in detail what happened that day, rather cathartic really.

Interested to hear your memories of the day.

I used to work as a tour manager, taking groups of American high school students all round Europe. Typically, we would all stay in a hotel in, say, Docklands and travel around town together by tube. I was just doing a standard London & Paris, and we left for Paris via Eurostar on the 5th. Saw the group off at Charles de Gaulle early on the morning of the 7th, made my way back to the hotel, and pottered around with the TV on in the background, gradually becoming aware that the French rolling news kept on going on about Eurostar being cancelled, so switched over to CNN..

I was just so relieved that I hadn't had to look after a group through all that in London, or even been on the tube. I heard much later that all the other groups in London had been fine, they'd just had to stay in their hotels and not get to see much of London that day.

I was driving to visit a friend for a coffee when I heard the news on the radio, rushed to her house and tried to phone DH who took the tube from Liverpool Street every morning, she was trying to contact her DH who worked near Liverpool Street and we were watching BBC News at the same time. It took hours for me to get through to DH, I was frantic and couldn't focus on anything.

I hadn't realised that today was 7th July and it was the anniversary. Such a terrible day.

We heard on the radio in the morning about the 'power surge'. MIL rang up and told us that she thought it sounded iffy, and that there was surely something happening.

Ended up walking DH to bus stop (I was on maternity) and realised that pur mobiles weren't working. I finally got through to my office to make sure my team were ok, and they filled me in on the details.

aliciaflorrick - it is the 6th today.

Thanks Just and DS has just told me it's Friday and not Saturday - I'm completely our of synch today.

I was at work in the City. It just went utterly silent apart from ambulances. I couldn't get home to North London so I walked to my sister's house in S London. I had to buy some flat shoes to walk in - I still have them. I don't wear them any more but I don't feel I can throw them out.

I also lost a colleague :(

In my office in Docklands. Can't remember how, but we guessed that there had been a terrorist attack before the news got to us - possibly we were hearing of so much disruption on tube via colleagues, people not turning up to meetings, maybe - but there was a moment when me and my business partner just looked at each other and simultaneously voiced the same fear that there'd been a big incident. Later we put on the TV in the office and watched rolling news all day.

An intern working for us couldn't track down her flatmate that day. We all thought that she had lost her phone, or something. A couple of days later it was confirmed that she had died at Russell Square. Utterly heart-breaking.

Another clear memory I have of that day is when I went outside around 6pm and hundreds of people were walking past my office and down the road towards the Greenwich foot tunnel.

I was living in London at the time and usually took the Northern Line to work. I was due to run in a charity fun run with work that evening so had my kit with me. The Northern Line was closed due to an actual electrical failure so I put my trainers on and started walking to work. The buses were already rammed (it was about 7:45).

I did eventually get on a bus near Elephant and Castle and got off again at London Bridge at about 9am. Even by that point there was transport chaos but I put it down to the Northern Line problems. I stopped in Tesco to buy some breakfast and they had BBC News on the screen with a ticker saying there were electrical problems on the tube.

I walked the rest of the way to my office (about 200m from Aldgate) and was met by a row of Police and ambulances and bemused commuters with superficial injuries. I began to think it might be something more than an electrical fault but figured perhaps that problem had caused a fire or something.

In the office everyone else was calm and wouldn't really listen to my tales of what was going on as (unfortunately) a lady in our Norwich office had died overnight. I logged on and MSN'd by boyfriend in Birmingham and got him to look at the news etc but it was still being reported as an electrical fault. He told me to calm down etc.

At about 10am, just after the bus blew up, I took a call from the police asking us to close all the blinds in our office in case of further explosions. I then ran to interrupt the emergency board meeting, closed all the blinds and began to trace our staff who hadn't made it in.

I was lucky and managed to contact all my friends and family quickly from my desk phone. Mobiles didn't work again for hours and hours. We weren't supposed to leave the office (I guess because of the proximity to Aldgate) but we did eventually all go downstairs to a local bar. Most people were just in shock. We came up with an emergency plan to accommodate staff in London who couldn't get home but then the overground trains were started again at about 4pm.

I managed to get a bus home eventually and spent the rest of the evening in the pub with my housemates just going over and over what had happened.

I'll never forget that day as long as I live and I'll be forever grateful for that fault on the Northern Line keeping all my local friends off the tube network that day.

Weirdly enough, doing just what I am now. Off work with a strapped up leg and off my tits on painkillers. Though was worse then. I remember not moving from in front of the tv and not taking it in then crying for all the poor people when it was apparent that it was bad.

I was on the Jubilee line, probably at about Waterloo. I then changed for the central line to go west and was sitting in the last seat of the last carriage thinking to myself 'If there is a bomb in the tunnel behind me I will be the first to feel it' - random thought but felt quite eerie later on to think I had been thinking that.

The train then started crawling along, and the driver kept coming on the intercom saying that there had been a power surge and the train would terminate at Notting Hill. There was something in his voice that I picked up on, and it made me a bit scared. On the street I started walking towards a bus that would take me to work, I walked past another tube station that had been closed and I thought to myself that something big had happened and that it wasn't just a power surge.

I got to work and found out what had happened, spent an anxious two hours or so trying to get throught to dh. My parents were calling from NZ and my mum was crying, that was hard.

I left soon after and spent four hours and four bus rides skirting around the central city trying to get home. I always think of the kindness of the bus driver at Clapham who didn't have to stop for the big crowd of us but did, and there were lots of people obviously very distressed and upset. Even typing this makes me feel the anxiety of that time.

I got back on the tube four days later (no other way to get to work that wouldn't take three hours), but it took me at least a month to feel okay about that.

I was at work - office was next door to Liverpool Street station. At the same time as we heard about the "power surge" problem, I became ill (bug). We were hearing about all stations being closed down, but luckily my company paid for a taxi home for me (otherwise I'd never have got home). The cab driver then phoned (what seemed like) everyone in his contacts list telling them about how he'd struck lucky picking me up (over £100 fare) . In the meantime I'm in the back of the cab trying not to vomit but also wanting to listen to the radio for more info.
Never have I been so grateful for being ill though!

I can't believe it's been seven years. I was supposed to be working in Central London, but had gone to the GP as I had an ear infection. I then went to the supermarket to go to the pharmacy there to pick up antibiotics, and I noticed there was a strange atmosphere, and wondered what was going on. Then I got back to my flat - where my flatmates promptly ran at me and burst into tears. Which rather surprised me. They had - quite correctly, if I'd been working - thought that I would have been at Aldgate around the time it all kicked off, and had been frantically ringing my mobile - which I had left in my room.
Even when they explained it, I didn't really get it - we were supposed to be going out of London late that afternoon together to go and see another friend who was working in the Midlands, and I couldn't understand why Kings Cross would still be shut. It wasn't until my dad phoned me and got really teary - my big, tough, dad - that it suddenly hit me and I started to cry.
We all went out that night around the south London suburb we lived in and we got, very very very drunk. Everyone we met had a story to tell about where they had been/how they got home etc. Everyone was very drunk. It was a weird kind of 'end of the world' party atmosphere. Really strange. I talked to more people in London that night than I think I ever did again.

I worked just off Trafalgar Square so had been there for the Olympics announcement. Next day got Tube to work, got one stop to West Ken and er stop. Eventually the driver says there's been some huge failure and no Tubes are running in the whole of London. I got a bus to Hyde Park and then all buses stopped so I organised a walking group to Westminster and herded lots of tourists and lost people. Got to my desk by 10 and got told the news.

The rest of the day was spent watching all my friends checking in on LiveJournal and Facebook, talking to the guy I was supposed to meet that day who eventually cycled home, and all the Brits on LiveJournal telling the Americans to calm down, bombs happen.

These stories are so moving.

Funny how many stories end with "and then we went to the pub" Pretty sure I did the same later that evening but I can't fully remember.

I think being around people really helps in the aftermath of such serious situations - it's an opportunity to discuss and share rather than the events just going around and around your mind....the alcohol comes in useful from a nerve calming perspective too!

Got home to find I'd locked myself out so spent the evening in local Thai restaurant until MrNC got home. And luckily it was a lovely summer for walking half an hour from Tube to work for the next couple months.

I was in Victoria Street tube station waiting for the tube.

I walked to work when we were told there was a breakdown on the line and didn't know any more until later in the morning.

I then was trapped in London and managed to get home by getting a train to Heathrow and picking up a hire car.
It was an unreal day in many ways and I have just realised how much I have purposely forgotten about the day.

sorry to remind MissFenella - hope I haven't resurrected too many painful memories for anyone :(

We were in Nottingham shopping with nearly one year old ds.

The first we knew when the huge electronic signs above the M1 on the way home that displayed 'DO NOT ATTEMPT TO ENTER LONDON' it was both unreal and chilling.

It was a mad scrabble to get the radio on and the news, although horific, wasn't as bad as some of the things that had flashed though our heads.

I was at home in south London getting ready to fly out on holiday that afternoon. We saw the first news reports coming in of a 'power surge' on the Underground and the moment they mentioned 'explosions' at two stations my friend and I immediately knew that it was no 'surge'.

I remember it took me absolutely hours to get hold of DP who worked in central London; realistically I knew he would be ok but I was very 50/50 about getting on my flight without at least talking to him briefly. Very hard trying to get hold of parents and say that I was fine and that we didn't think we knew anyone who had been caught up (everyone I knew in London at that time worked in the City).

One bit that really sticks in my mind was that we hadn't printed off our flight reservations and had meant to go to my office to do it before heading to the airport - obviously we didn't, it was hard enough getting to the airport anyway that day. At the check-in desk we explained and at first the check-in assistant was all snotty and difficult, until her colleague just stared at her and was all - err, hello...?

I had a few close friends who would have been on the Northern Line KX/Camden area had that bomber made it onto the Tube. I think everyone will always remember where they were.

I arrived at Cannon Street and discovered the tube station closed; I walked through Walbrook past Bank and heard that was closed too because of the "power surge". At this point I did not believe the stories. Bank and Cannon Street are on two different tube lines. Then I walked up past Moorgate tube which was closed due to a "power surge". At that point I definitely didn't believe the story.

I got to work and the news started unfolding. We had one colleague on the bus behind the one that exploded and another one trapped on a train a couple behind the one at Aldgate. Luckily, although very shocked, neither was hurt.

Our building went into lockdown and we had to put the blinds down on all windows. I managed to get through to my Mum to put her on standby to collect my son from school in case I couldn't get there in time.

At about 3pm I left work and started walking home. Luckily, the railway stations south of the river were OK, so jumped on a train just to get out of the City and got home a bit earlier than usual.

Later that night, another Mum from the school, rang to tell me that she'd known the day before it all happened, that something was going to happen.

From that day to this I haven't spoken to her. A) Because if she had known - and she knew of my particular circumstances (which is important), then she shouldn't have said anything. B) Because if it was all bullshit, then she had been very thoughtless, bordering on cruel, to satisfy her excitement lust.

I was in Kent, on holiday from here. Couldn't get in touch with friends and family living and working in London. I actually expected the situation to escalate, I was waiting for the news to say something along the lines of "coordinated attacks across many countries etc" Did calm down after speaking to my sister and receiving texts in the evening. I seem to remember mobile phones not working, could have been the volume of demand on the networks.

I was at home in North London with DS (then two) frantically cleaning the house for a visit from my PILs that evening. DH had cycled into the city that morning, as always.

Neither the radio nor the tv had been on at home that morning, so the first I heard of the bombings was DH ringing at about 2 o'clock to say he was alright and heading home (but would be caught up). I was completely bewildered and turned the tv on as soon as he hung up before ringing all friends and family in the city that day. I will never forget the relief that filled me when I heard they were all okay, even though that was a few hours later.

I was nearly 7 months pregnant with DD. Worked on Baker Street and caught train into Kings Cross and then tube round to Baker Street to get there. Luckily I worked 8am until 4pm so was there by 8. Found out about the "power surge" around 9am or so I think.

Don't think anyone from my work was affected although was a large office so is possible. Was meant to be my firm's summer party that day which obviously didn't happen. Some time early afternoon we were told we could go and a few of us who commuted into Kings Cross began walking. We headed for Finsbury Park (about 5 miles away?) and walked along with many other people. I remember it being very hot although possibly intensified by the size of my body. Remember feeling quite scared especially due to having a baby inside me and wondering what else would happen.

Luckily DH wasn't working in London that day so he was able to pick up toddler DS from nursery. Remember eventually getting a train at a rammed Finsbury park station and walking back home from my station where I was met with a bowl of water for my feet.

I was finishing work a couple of weeks later anyway and managed to work from home a lot before then as I was v worried about travelling into London. I think I stopped work 21st July and seem to remember some scare that day too? Think I got a taxi back to Kings Cross that day anyway.