Monday, July 18, 2005
Tavistock Square
I went up to my gym today which was open for the first time since the bombs went off on 7th July. My gym is in a hotel about fifty yards down the road from where the bus bomb exploded outside BMA House. I used to work in that building, and my girlfriend still does. She (as with many BMA/BMJ staff) had the unfortunate experience of being able to view the aftermath from the second floor balcony within seconds of the blast, and you can imagine that it was not a very pretty sight. Thankfully nobody at BMA/BMJ was injured physically, though the images and mental anguish will remain with many of the staff for years to come.
My blog wishes to highlight a couple of points that I haven't seen mentioned elsewhere...
Firstly, the bus was a number 30, going from the East end to Marble Arch. Now number 30's don't normally go past BMA house (I checked again this morning by looking at the numbers on the bus stop), so what made the driver go that way? I know that the roads around the area may well have been crowded - the tube bombs went off about an hour earlier, and parts of Euston Road would have been closed, even by then - but is it normal for buses to take such detours? Is it possible that the bomber was heading elsewhere (speculation was that he wanted to get on the Northern line at Kings Cross but couldn't for some reason)? Was he caught out by the apparent detour and worried that he might not be going to, say, Oxford Street? Is this why the bomb was detonated soon after the driver made the turn? I don't know, and am merely highlighting this as nobody else seems to have mentioned it.
My second point is that Tavistock Square is a Peace Park - unless you've been into the square you probably wouldn't realise. It has a statue of Gandhi and also a monument to the victims of the atomic bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It is a lovely small park to have lunch in, with plenty of shade and grass lawns. The CND hold a get together in the park every 8th August (I think) to remember the first nuclear blast. I cannot see this park as being a target for the bomber but the irony is not lost on me... It may well be that a new memorial is built in the park to remember the 14 who died on the bus?
Hopefully the bombs are now behind us and we can look forward to making London a great place to live, work, and play in again.
Finally, I'd like to mention that my thoughts have been with the victims of the four blasts over the last couple of weeks and their families, and I hope that they can recover their lives as much as possible.
With love and a tear in the eye...
I went up to my gym today which was open for the first time since the bombs went off on 7th July. My gym is in a hotel about fifty yards down the road from where the bus bomb exploded outside BMA House. I used to work in that building, and my girlfriend still does. She (as with many BMA/BMJ staff) had the unfortunate experience of being able to view the aftermath from the second floor balcony within seconds of the blast, and you can imagine that it was not a very pretty sight. Thankfully nobody at BMA/BMJ was injured physically, though the images and mental anguish will remain with many of the staff for years to come.
My blog wishes to highlight a couple of points that I haven't seen mentioned elsewhere...
Firstly, the bus was a number 30, going from the East end to Marble Arch. Now number 30's don't normally go past BMA house (I checked again this morning by looking at the numbers on the bus stop), so what made the driver go that way? I know that the roads around the area may well have been crowded - the tube bombs went off about an hour earlier, and parts of Euston Road would have been closed, even by then - but is it normal for buses to take such detours? Is it possible that the bomber was heading elsewhere (speculation was that he wanted to get on the Northern line at Kings Cross but couldn't for some reason)? Was he caught out by the apparent detour and worried that he might not be going to, say, Oxford Street? Is this why the bomb was detonated soon after the driver made the turn? I don't know, and am merely highlighting this as nobody else seems to have mentioned it.
My second point is that Tavistock Square is a Peace Park - unless you've been into the square you probably wouldn't realise. It has a statue of Gandhi and also a monument to the victims of the atomic bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It is a lovely small park to have lunch in, with plenty of shade and grass lawns. The CND hold a get together in the park every 8th August (I think) to remember the first nuclear blast. I cannot see this park as being a target for the bomber but the irony is not lost on me... It may well be that a new memorial is built in the park to remember the 14 who died on the bus?
Hopefully the bombs are now behind us and we can look forward to making London a great place to live, work, and play in again.
Finally, I'd like to mention that my thoughts have been with the victims of the four blasts over the last couple of weeks and their families, and I hope that they can recover their lives as much as possible.
With love and a tear in the eye...
