Apologies for misnaming the union in the original version of this, it was the TGWU. Rather than the TWGA, who are the Tunbridge Wells Group of Anaesthetists and — as far as I can tell — had no reported involvement in the immediate 7/7 transport operation.
Absolutely brilliant and genuinely moving piece on 7/7 and our wonderful red buses. Remember the day well and I teared up when heard in the distance a bus near Finsbury Park. TfL’s staff and leadership finest moment, that and Covid deaths of service staff.
Do look at London connections- highly recommended. I am a historian and author specialising in the area with a book out in October from Pen & Sword. They are a cut above- I know the difference for what passes for tube and bus history these days-superb!
Oh my goodness, brings back so many feelings. It was such a strange day - all the shop workers went home. Except the ones selling food and shoes. They stayed so that people could eat, and so workers could buy shoes comfortable enough to walk potentially miles in. I was working near Farringdon and my wife's office was off Oxford Street. I walked to pick her up, and we walked as far as Shepherds Bush, where the first buses were running.
I was a mini coach driver for RBKC community transport that day, I had 15 kids on board and we were visiting Barnes Nature Reserve when I heard the news, told the teachers and departed hurriedly for home. My day was just starting though, I was asked to volunteer to drive staff from the Town Hall to Clapham Junction, which I gladly did, although the traffic was brutal. I ferried others back from the Station to West London too. 2 weeks later, I have an old boy on board to drop home after taking him shopping. We were approaching Barlby Road, he lived in that big estate which just happened to harbour the 2nd terror cell, we got no further and I had to bring him to a welfare centre until the cops had cleared the area. For years afterwards I used to say a prayer for Jean-Charles de Menezes every time I passed Stockwell Station. Cressida Dick got off scotfree over that terrible misjudged affair. In fact, she was made Met Commissioner, talk about failing upwards. Those two weeks were High Anxiety time in London with sirens all over the shop and everyone jumpy. No social media to speak of then, today there'd be ructions over the perpetrators' ethnic background.
Bus drivers are so often maligned and forgotten, but that day they were heroes, getting people home safely. London's incredible resilience is part of what makes it such a great place and how TfL handled that awful day is a true mark of that.
I will never forget the bus driver that stopped to pick up passengers even though his bus was overcrowded in the early afternoon. He said it was important to help people get home safely. I will write more about this on my substack as this article has triggered all the memories of that day. I felt so relieved to get to Clapham junction and catch any train out of London to get home. In the horror of that day there was kindness, care and love for fellow humans. Thank you to the bus driver who was so brave and inspiring.
I remember legging it down the road to a branch of Cotswold Outdoor to buy sleeping bags for colleagues we thought would be staying overnight in the office. I walked from Oxford circus to Liverpool Street in ballet flats, an activity I cannot recommend.
I was on my way to the Crown Court in Southwark where I was sitting as a magistrate on appeals. At the last minute I’d had a call from the listing officer asking me to go to SCC instead of the Marylebone Court I had originally been listed for.
As the tube arrived at London Bridge, the train emptied as an announcement had been made that the train would go no further. I was relieved as it was my destination and I knew I wouldn’t be late. Clearly, there was something very wrong but we had no idea what - staff and passengers were milling around but no one seemed to know what the problem was. I left the station and made my way to Court and the retiring room.
The Judge arrived rather late looking very troubled and explained that he’d been messaged about dreadful events but had no more details. We tried to find out more but the communications systems were all compromised and Judge said that as all the participants and lawyers were in court and ready to go, we should just conduct the day’s business as there was nothing we could do.
So we did. At lunch, news kept coming in from the BBC about the horrors of the day but it was hard to get details and His Honour was seriously worried about his daughter who was attending a demo somewhere. He tried to contact her with no success.
It was a dreadful hour knowing we could contact no one but HH said, well we have a duty to the defendants and all the staff so let’s just carry on through the afternoon. And we did. Then at about 4.30 when all was finished we listened to the news on the BBC made clear how terrible the devastation was. We could do nothing except find our way home.
I didn’t have a mobile phone then but the lines were down anyway so no way to contact family
We left the court to find hundreds of people wandering about, most shops closed and no transport available. I realised that I would have to walk home and by the luckiest chance I found a shoe shop still open and I bought a pair of flat sandals as my smart heels I wore for court would not have got me home. I decided that the best way to get home was to follow the river all the way from Southwark along the Thames Barrier close to where I live. The Thames Path was in a very unfinished state and there were a fair few challenging stretches to navigate. When I got to Deptford I realised that I was near my daughter’s office at NACRO, where my daughter worked and so, footsore and weary I made my way there. She was dreadfully distressed and crying uncontrollably as she knew I was supposed to going to Marylebone and would have been on the tube train that was attacked. I don’t think I’ve been in such an emotional moment.
Anyway we both walked the rest of the way home - about another five miles and then managed to phone my husband who was in his sealed workplace and had had no idea what was happening beyond.
And then, like all London we watched the awfulness on the news with mounting horror and lots of tears for all the victims.
This article made me cry. I was one of those ordinary London commuters on 7/7, kicked off the Tube in Central London the morning, family frantic (no mobile), and there were so many calm, kind transport staff just talking to people. Started walking on the Euston Road, met a woman also trying to get out West, and a Black cab driver pulled up and took us both out as far as Ealing - for nothing.
The Ken Livingstone Singapore video often gets replayed when the anniversary of 7/7 comes along, but I think the speech he did on his return - London United - still stands, in its emotion and simplicity, as one of the great liberal-progressive speeches of the 21st century. A link to some of it is still available:
Apologies for misnaming the union in the original version of this, it was the TGWU. Rather than the TWGA, who are the Tunbridge Wells Group of Anaesthetists and — as far as I can tell — had no reported involvement in the immediate 7/7 transport operation.
My fat fingers while editing, not John's mistake.
Absolutely brilliant and genuinely moving piece on 7/7 and our wonderful red buses. Remember the day well and I teared up when heard in the distance a bus near Finsbury Park. TfL’s staff and leadership finest moment, that and Covid deaths of service staff.
Do look at London connections- highly recommended. I am a historian and author specialising in the area with a book out in October from Pen & Sword. They are a cut above- I know the difference for what passes for tube and bus history these days-superb!
Oh my goodness, brings back so many feelings. It was such a strange day - all the shop workers went home. Except the ones selling food and shoes. They stayed so that people could eat, and so workers could buy shoes comfortable enough to walk potentially miles in. I was working near Farringdon and my wife's office was off Oxford Street. I walked to pick her up, and we walked as far as Shepherds Bush, where the first buses were running.
I was a mini coach driver for RBKC community transport that day, I had 15 kids on board and we were visiting Barnes Nature Reserve when I heard the news, told the teachers and departed hurriedly for home. My day was just starting though, I was asked to volunteer to drive staff from the Town Hall to Clapham Junction, which I gladly did, although the traffic was brutal. I ferried others back from the Station to West London too. 2 weeks later, I have an old boy on board to drop home after taking him shopping. We were approaching Barlby Road, he lived in that big estate which just happened to harbour the 2nd terror cell, we got no further and I had to bring him to a welfare centre until the cops had cleared the area. For years afterwards I used to say a prayer for Jean-Charles de Menezes every time I passed Stockwell Station. Cressida Dick got off scotfree over that terrible misjudged affair. In fact, she was made Met Commissioner, talk about failing upwards. Those two weeks were High Anxiety time in London with sirens all over the shop and everyone jumpy. No social media to speak of then, today there'd be ructions over the perpetrators' ethnic background.
Bus drivers are so often maligned and forgotten, but that day they were heroes, getting people home safely. London's incredible resilience is part of what makes it such a great place and how TfL handled that awful day is a true mark of that.
I will never forget the bus driver that stopped to pick up passengers even though his bus was overcrowded in the early afternoon. He said it was important to help people get home safely. I will write more about this on my substack as this article has triggered all the memories of that day. I felt so relieved to get to Clapham junction and catch any train out of London to get home. In the horror of that day there was kindness, care and love for fellow humans. Thank you to the bus driver who was so brave and inspiring.
Tears running down my face reading that. We all know who the key workers are, and they aren’t in COBR meetings.
I remember legging it down the road to a branch of Cotswold Outdoor to buy sleeping bags for colleagues we thought would be staying overnight in the office. I walked from Oxford circus to Liverpool Street in ballet flats, an activity I cannot recommend.
I was on my way to the Crown Court in Southwark where I was sitting as a magistrate on appeals. At the last minute I’d had a call from the listing officer asking me to go to SCC instead of the Marylebone Court I had originally been listed for.
As the tube arrived at London Bridge, the train emptied as an announcement had been made that the train would go no further. I was relieved as it was my destination and I knew I wouldn’t be late. Clearly, there was something very wrong but we had no idea what - staff and passengers were milling around but no one seemed to know what the problem was. I left the station and made my way to Court and the retiring room.
The Judge arrived rather late looking very troubled and explained that he’d been messaged about dreadful events but had no more details. We tried to find out more but the communications systems were all compromised and Judge said that as all the participants and lawyers were in court and ready to go, we should just conduct the day’s business as there was nothing we could do.
So we did. At lunch, news kept coming in from the BBC about the horrors of the day but it was hard to get details and His Honour was seriously worried about his daughter who was attending a demo somewhere. He tried to contact her with no success.
It was a dreadful hour knowing we could contact no one but HH said, well we have a duty to the defendants and all the staff so let’s just carry on through the afternoon. And we did. Then at about 4.30 when all was finished we listened to the news on the BBC made clear how terrible the devastation was. We could do nothing except find our way home.
I didn’t have a mobile phone then but the lines were down anyway so no way to contact family
We left the court to find hundreds of people wandering about, most shops closed and no transport available. I realised that I would have to walk home and by the luckiest chance I found a shoe shop still open and I bought a pair of flat sandals as my smart heels I wore for court would not have got me home. I decided that the best way to get home was to follow the river all the way from Southwark along the Thames Barrier close to where I live. The Thames Path was in a very unfinished state and there were a fair few challenging stretches to navigate. When I got to Deptford I realised that I was near my daughter’s office at NACRO, where my daughter worked and so, footsore and weary I made my way there. She was dreadfully distressed and crying uncontrollably as she knew I was supposed to going to Marylebone and would have been on the tube train that was attacked. I don’t think I’ve been in such an emotional moment.
Anyway we both walked the rest of the way home - about another five miles and then managed to phone my husband who was in his sealed workplace and had had no idea what was happening beyond.
And then, like all London we watched the awfulness on the news with mounting horror and lots of tears for all the victims.
I miss Ken
Really emotional reading that. What a brave group of people at such a terrible moment for London. Thank you.
This article made me cry. I was one of those ordinary London commuters on 7/7, kicked off the Tube in Central London the morning, family frantic (no mobile), and there were so many calm, kind transport staff just talking to people. Started walking on the Euston Road, met a woman also trying to get out West, and a Black cab driver pulled up and took us both out as far as Ealing - for nothing.
The Ken Livingstone Singapore video often gets replayed when the anniversary of 7/7 comes along, but I think the speech he did on his return - London United - still stands, in its emotion and simplicity, as one of the great liberal-progressive speeches of the 21st century. A link to some of it is still available:
https://youtu.be/6BSIBPsbL9c?si=UFxWR-4IjsDRzOl2
Thank you for reminding us how proud we should be of our city.
I didn't move to London till 2011 - long after 2005 - but this piece really got me; very moving.
Who are we all voting for at the next election to get more investment in our highly productive capital city then?
We see you, the Lib Dem policy advisers on the mailing list trying to work out how to break out of south west London.