7/7:The London Bombings

[Appalonia]

Anyone watching? This is going to be a hard watch, especially for those of us who were in London at the time. Can't believe it was 20 years ago...

And people trying to ‘get involved’ - what has flying from Egypt got to do with it? Or simply being in London? Sits uneasy with me

@wavingfuriously

Sorry I couldn't quite bring myself to type
It

Rats

I had a friend who tried to get on the bus but it was so full she decided to walk instead.

We stayed in the hotel in Tavistock Square a few weeks later. I remember ringing them to ask if they were still open and they were so happy we weren’t cancelling as I think everyone was. The bus was still there but covered up.

I wondered about the misery porn. I’m also wondering whether it’s wise to show this at a time when grooming gangs are at the top of the news agenda, because of the obvious link to islamaphobia.

And I’m also finding Andy Hayman very unlikeable. Just googled him, and the wiki entry and his links to phone hacking investigation then working for News International are a bit eyebrow-raising

@StillTryingToKeepGoing I do t think it's irresponsible to air this now with the grooming gang stuff in the news. It's all factual stuff.

I went to school with one of the bombers and lived close to another. I'm always waiting for the news to break we have a grooming gang problem in my area. I've been groped multiple times in taxis and on busses and chatted up offered drug so come hang out. I had group therapy once with a young woman who had been groomed and raped along with her friend by a Muslim taxi driver. I try not to be islamophobic but my experiences show me there is a particular risk with Islamic men. Add to that the life women are leading in Islamic countries and how it's getting worse all the time (women can't stand by windows, get an education or health care. Legal age of marriage lowered to 9 years old).

Racism is absolutely wrong. Discrimination because of someone's religion is absolutely wrong. But covering things in our media that have and are happening in the world and being factual about the backgrounds of those involved should never be squashed for fear of being Islamophobic. That's part of the reason the grooming gamgs get away with it.

Absolutely. The care they took was incredible.

Yes the poster on a flight from Egypt saying it was 'horrific' I mean , wtaf

I was in London that day. Kicked off my DLR on the way into work due to "power surges". I heard that there were bombs as I was walking to my office when my parents called me from holiday - they had seen it on the news.

My then boyfriend (now husband) was in the train behind one that was bombed and I couldn't reach him for ages. The guy in the office next to me lost his best friend. That emerged a while later as his friend was right next to one of the bombs so his remains were not easily identifiable. What my friend and the victim's family went through was hell. It changed my friend forever.

I'm not sure if I can watch. I remember the day very clearly.

Why? Can the general public not be trusted to be allowed to watch a programme about the desperately sad deaths of innocent people without rampaging against other people who happen to share a religion/culture with the few murderous extremists who were responsible?

@Snatherwang i do get what you’re saying about posters trying to claim weird connections with what happened (happens every time there’s a discussion about a tragedy - see Lockerbie thread 😬) but I’m not sure I agree with you about the misery porn. I lived in London at the time and found it an incredibly moving and powerful documentary - and it’s also shifted my thinking on the fatal shooting two weeks later. Just an unbelievable tragedy all round 😢

It's human nature to remember and think about things (and people, who may no longer be with us and their connection to a shocking or traumatic event that affected or touched many of us or those close to us and changed your view of things).

I don't think it's "misery porn" or even "trying to claim weird connections"/ "get involved" for people, especially those in London, to talk about perspectives of the events of that day in response to a documentary that's being shown currently; wasn't going to watch at all, probs for the same reasons as others, what would it change, but did and found it powerful and moving, esp. of those whose stories we didn't know or perhaps like to think about (first responders especially), and brought a lot more back than I expected. It's a harrowing watch though, tbh and I can see why some would rather avoid.

For a lot of people, the "it could easily have been me" but for a for a few minutes, or a split second decision for something ordinary they do every day, can be quite a strong and often uncomfortable one to grapple with. I'm not sure that's "weird", it's a very human response and people do express that in different ways and will talk about it (or prefer not to) in different ways too.

Fair point @hihelenhi I think it was the ‘I flew from Egypt it was horrific’ that got my back up! People often feel so desperate to try and make things about them when so many people genuinely suffered.

I remember that day so clearly. I was working in London but had already arrived in work. I was working in Southwark and they let us go home early and I caught a tourist boat to Greenwich (they were letting commuters use for free) then walked under the Thames in Greenwich, caught the DLR to Canary Wharf, took a taxi to City Airport with 3 other people, where I finally picked up a bus to my house in Walthamstow. Took about 4 hours.

The day before London had been awarded the 2012 Olympics.

I was on one of the tubes and was quite close to the bomb. We were evacuated from the train and had to walk past where the bomb had gone off and it was awful. I watched the first episode and did find it quite hard - but I didn't feel it was misery porn. It was presented very factually but didn't go for sensationalism. It was also interesting to see how the experiences on my train were both similar and different to those on the other trains.

I've watched all 4 episodes and my god, some of the details are haunting, I hadn't heard about a lot of it and it will stay in my head a long time. I was in the earlier years of secondary school at the time, so we had no idea what was going on in the 'outside world' during school hours (no smartphones, social media or internet access unless supervised in IT). The first we heard about it was in a lesson after lunch as the teacher was worried about family she knew in London and had a tv with the live news on.

I didn't know there were attempts to do it again 2 weeks later. I can see why some people are avoiding this as it must bring it all back to people, I found it all so upsetting.

it was interesting and harrowing viewing and brought a lot back to me. Anyone who lived and worked in London at the time will have their memories. I lived in west London , newly married and was standing on Stamford Brook station waiting for the tube when we were told there’d been a power surge and tubes were cancelled. I went home and then spent hours trying to contact my husband and panicking about whether he was safe and then how he’d get home.
I was then caught up on 21/7 failed attacks and was on the Shepherd’s Bush tube where one of the attacks was attempted. I remember getting off the tube and being told to run.
It’s remarkable how, as Londoners, we got ‘back to normal’. Back to work, back on public transport. A year later I had a baby and don’t remember being unduly worried about getting around London.
I now live miles away but those images brought back those days.

I also didn’t know about the failed attempts. It’s amazing that it wasn’t that long ago but I actually didn’t know that much about it despite being interested.
my main memory is messaging my friend to check she was okay and her telling me not to be so silly as she didn’t use the underground.

Im watching now. Quite moving . The story about the police officer who walked done the tunnel with his colleagues to the bombed tube train, who subsequently waited on his own with dead bodies whilst his colleagues went back for something. He said he talked to them and said they wouldn’t be forgotten and how sorry he was about what happened to them.

This is one of the most haunting documentaries I've ever watched. It made me feel such sadness for the 52 people who died and their families. Julie Nicholson (the priest whose daughter was killed) wrote a book about her grief and there are excerpts on the Mail Online. Very moving

Rats live down there.

Looking back to 2005, Britain seemed quite safe and a bit more innocent then. Prior to this we had hadn’t had suicide bombers.
The IRA hadn’t bombed the UK for years.

My brother was 18 and worked in the city, I was at the time nearly leaving the military and on a course in Hampshire. I remember being a bit worried about him, I couldn’t get through on the phone because all the mobiles were down due to the influx of texts , calls.

Although I was sure he was safe, the odds of him being a victim were very low but even still.

I got a job in security in London later that year and 7/7 was mentioned quite a bit because it was still very recent.

I was on a train going in the opposite direction at the same time. We were booted off at Tower Hill, because of 'power surges'.

I walked past Algate towards Liverpool St and Bishopsgate. I'd never seen so many emergency vehicles. Even someone on a pushbike with a flashing blue light.

Then I nearly got mowed down by hefty bad ass bomb squad men running towards the station.

When I got into work at 9:10 colleagues were relieved and ticked me off the list and waited for others.

It wasn't even on the news yet...apart from 'power surges'.

Do you think so?

After new york in 2001 and Madrid the year before, i think Londoners were half expecting something