Police control access to Southampton Row [Adam Tinworth/FLICKR]
Adam Tinworth passed by an older couple this evening, standing by the side of the road, trying to figure out how to get home. “I haven’t caught a bus in years,” said the woman, “but I’m sure I could do it.”
“It’s strange,” says Adam, “when your city becomes a stereotype.”
Adam, who writes One Man & His Blog, lives in Lewisham, in southeast London. We caught up with him on the phone this afternoon to talk about a series of photographs he took in London today. The streets, he reports, were a strange combination of quieter on the pavement and busier on the sidewalk, as roads close and people figured out how to get home. It’s evening now, and the pubs that are open are filled. “They’re having a very London reaction,” he says, “complaining about how terrorism is making their lives inconvenient.”
Daniel Silberstein lives at King’s Cross. He wrote us an email today after we got in touch with him through his blog, Daniels Counter Blog of A Jewish Something Kind.
My wife and I live at Kings Cross. My wife left home shortly before 9 am. She entered Kings Cross Thamslink Station which has a long walk towards the London Northern Line. As she walked down the stairs and down the long corridor suddenly people run towards her with blackened faces some with blood screaming. My wife thought there was a fire and she also run out. She then decided that it may be better to take the bus. She walked over to Euston Station and took a bus towards Camden. She heared the explosion of the bus that was blown up but did not understand its meaning until she arrived at work in Camden. She then walked herself back to Kings Cross and ended up crying.
Daniel Silberstein
The situation was surreal. There was little traffic later, a lot of people were forced to walk. It was a rare alive coming of London seeing its beautiful people outside the tube system. This lasted until the late afternoon. Some school children held by hend their Muslim fellow pupils, in an effort to protect them. They were clearly worried someone may turn against them.
Daniel Silberstein
Londoners, desperate for news, cram into Dixon’s[Adam Tinworth/FLICKR]
Daniel — on a motorbike on his way home from an early shift — was close enough to feel traffic slow and hear sirens, and had trouble figuring out what had happened. Adam reported the same experience; cell networks were down and he found a piece of London packing itself into Dixon’s, an electronics chain, to see what it could discover on the display televisions. “People carried on to work,” he said, “on the basis that they would find out more there.” Global news, it turns out, can be more revealing than personal experience.
I feel that Britain has been a little in a Cindarella sleep, thinking that attacks like that happen only in Tel Aviv or America, and that somehow the presence of the British left and London’s multicultural identity would make terrorists think twice before striking.
Daniel Silberstein
Ten years ago we were in the habit of expecting terrorist attacks. We sort of got out of the habit.
Adam Timworth
Full text of Daniel’s email after the jump.
