A year ago today, as I walked into Londons Liverpool Street Station, I saw dozens of police officers converging on it. I expected just another security alert. A bomb had just exploded on an underground train leaving the station, instead. That bomb killed seven people. A few days later, I snapped these floral tributes at the stations entrance. If they seem low-key, perhaps its because Londoners are no longer shocked by such attacks.
In 1993, the Liverpool Street underground station was damaged along with many of the surrounding buildings by a huge IRA truck bomb. Only person was killed as a warning had been given and the area was being evacuated, but forty were injured.
In 1940, the stations roof was shattered by bombing during the Luftwaffes Blitz on London. It escaped lightly, given that over 18,000 tons of bombs were dropped with 29,000 killed in London alone.
But the stations most infamous bombing was in 1917. On June 13, 1917, twenty German Gotha bombers evaded defending fighters and attacked London. They hit Liverpool Street Station, killing sixteen and injuring thirteen. The raids killed over a hundred people around London, including many children, and the nation was horrified. For the first time, the capital of a powerful Empire had been attacked from the air, and civilians had not been spared. The Great War had arrived on the home front.
With ninety years experience, its not surprising that Londoners seem hardened to the bombing. Few would expect this to be the last attack either. A docu-drama called Dirty War released in April 2005 used Liverpool Street Station as the site of a dirty bomb attack by terrorists.
While the media may try to play up fears of further terrorism, sites like the wonderful We’re Not Afraid capture the public mood. For most people, the signs put up on bomb-damaged shops in the Blitz really do sum it up: “Business As Usual.“
– David Hambling
London, Post-7/7: Business As Usual
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I don’t think the IRA campaign really prepared us for the 7/7 attacks. The IRA never aimed for mass civilian casualties, and didn’t (as far as I’m aware) pull off multiple co-ordinated attacks to shut down the whole transport system.
The IRA also stopped attacking on the mainland long enough ago that it’s not something that most Londoners really think about any more. When the bus bombing happened, it was reported as the first bomb attack on a bus in the UK, although the IRA had actually blown up a London bus in 1993 [1] (albeit accidentally).
I don’t think Londoners are hardened to bombing. It’s more that we’ve weighed up the scale of the threat and realised that our chances of actually being hurt are tiny.
Crucially, it became clear two weeks after 7/7, on what I like to call “Rubbish Thursday”, that UK extremists don’t have the infrastructure to maintain a concerted bombing campaign.
If there had been further genuine attacks, or a more deadly attack where thousands had died (not that I think the latter is a realistic prospect), you’d see a lot more people biking to work. Thus getting fitter and living longer, so the terrorists would ultimately have lost anyway by extending our lives.
We’re not that tough or brave, really. We’re just being pragmatic. Nobody likes to ride a bike in the rain.
When you see the coverage of politicians praising our bravery and going on about how another attack is inevitable, bear in mind two things:
1. Some of the injured survivors have had to fight bitterly to get funds and support they are entitled to, and in many cases the compensation isn’t nearly enough to help them rebuild their lives. There’s apparently a massive shortfall in post-traumatic stress disorder treatment, partly because a lot of people who weren’t physically injured were just sent away without their details being taken.
2. The emergency services were rightly praised for the job they did, but there are big gaps in their preparedness. As far as I’m aware, they still don’t have radios that can work in the Underground.
We can’t control fanatical suicide bombers, but you’d think it would be relatively simple to sort out the compensation and preparedness issues that we do control. But we haven’t.
[1] http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/18/newsid_4165000/4165719.stm