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raelity bytes - the author of blosxom
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Mon, 11 Jul 2005
London, 7/7
It was one of those days where you'll always remember where you were.
I was chairing the Eusprig 2005 conference in Greenwich, London.
Dave Chadwick, the Greenwich organiser, announced midmorning that there had been an incident in central London
and the Tube (underground metro system) was closed. At coffee break we knew there had been bombs and London was closed off.
Greenwich is south of the Thames, miles away from the attacks in North London, but already delegates could not use the mobile
phone system because it had been overloaded and reserved for emergency services. David Ward of KPMG was in touch with
his office on the one public phone in the building and offered to send emails to anyone anywhere on behalf of delegates
in order to reassure people concerned about their welfare. My wife was meeting two other spouses from the conference
with the intention of visiting some sights, but when they met at 10am it was already clear what was wrong,
so they spent the day in Greenwich.
(Actually, a pretty good choice anyway, with the Maritime Museum and Observatory, but I digress.)
Mid-morning, the BBC web site was still mentioning "power surges" but Sky TV had the breaking news. As a writer in the
Observer newspaper reported, you tune in to the BBC after the event to get the analysis. We showed the
BBC web site on the conference screen during the breaks to provide a summary of information so far.
When it became obvious that London was locked down, Dave Chadwick then organised rooms on the College campus for
people stranded there.
Before dinner, I had my first look at TV coverage of the atrocities. It was sobering viewing. Londoners were their
usual stoical selves, with more anguish than anger.
That evening, numbers were a little down at the conference dinner, but we went ahead nonetheless. Ray Butler proposed
our first toast, to the emergency services.
The next day, attendance was still good, not much lower than the usual second-day dip.
I'll comment on the conference separately, suffice it to say that we were pleased with its content and the discussions.
On Sunday, we travelled on the Docklands Light Railway to Tower Gateway, and the Stansted express from Liverpool St. to the airport.
The short walk from Tower to Liverpool St. station passed the Gherkin (Swiss Re) building which caught Megan's
interest in photographing architecture.
More soberly, the area around Aldgate was sealed off, and the streets were deserted,
an eerie silence in what would normally be a crowded London.
Today, Monday, London returns to as near normality as possible. After all, what else can one do?
The painstaking search for evidence and recovery of bodies from the horrors of the hell-hot underground tunnel proceeds.
Our thoughts and prayers are with our colleagues in London, a city we love to visit and will continue to do so.