Remembering 7/7...

Wow...here we are, five years on...I was very new to blogging (and regular writing in general) at the time, and found myself stumbling around in the middle of a massive terrorist atrocity (based, as I was at that time in Kings Cross - where the most devastating attack would take place - killing 26 people deep underground) and reacting to the whole affair by documenting it (oddly being picked up by several global media entities and linked to as I was learning what it meant to be a citizen journalist)...

This is just a re-post of what I wrote at the time - all the way back in 2005 - as details were starting to emerge (my first reaction - strangely, as most people were rooted to the spot - had been to grab my camera and run from my desk down to see what was happening)...my other posts from later that day (and subsequently) are around here and here...

"Latest reports say there have been at least 2 explosions across the capital, one in Kings Cross where I am...

Walking around there are police and fire brigade everywhere, as I was taking these shots a police officer said "You really don't want to be anywhere near that station, fella"...(he didn't have to tell me twice)...

I didn't take any pictures of them but lots of people had soot all over their faces...there are two helicopters overhead and sirens and flashing lights everywhere...

Everything was locked off behind the police line (I had missed it by coming up the side of the station, so kind of ended up in the middle of the closed bit...

The sheer number of people just standing around in the road was unbelievable...everyone is calm though, there is more an air of excitement than panic, which is quite strange..."

7/7 - One year on - Kings Cross - 2 minutes silence

Couldn't resist...

...but how else does one learn? Copy the pro... ;) This also answers one question from the last 2 minutes silence...no - they don't need to buy Big Macs (and neither did I... ;)

Lots and lots of people came, but only I recon about half as many as last time...for the actual 2 minutes I left McDonalds (which was full of people talking and eating) and crossed the road to join the patient throng...

Got pretty near the front but couldn't hear anything the guy said apart from "Thank you all very much" at the end of the 2 minutes...he was doing a quiet speech, but it was just too quiet for me...

Still, job done...

7/7 - One year on

Got to Kings Cross early so I could take a few snaps before work, and as expected it was a real media circus, rows of anchormen either having make-up applied/touched up or waiting patiently to deliver their scripted commentary...

...again from the traffic island (which means I was probably on 3 or 4 TV channels at this point), check out the satellite dish on the van on the right...

No anchormen here, so this footage was going to be cut into reports for later on...

Lots of police too...(as I was expecting)...

This guy was reading his report to someone over the phone "It began as a day like any other"...(not very original ;)

Using the photographers trick that I spotted during the 2 minutes silence last year, I climbed to the 2nd floor of the McDonalds on the corner and shot out the window (I think I counted 20 coppers in this shot!) -

- and a close up on the floral tribute...

I posted a lot on 7/7, made a lot of newspapers - mostly German, Brazillian and Dutch (strangely), traffic went through the roof (still get a lot of hits out of it) as I was practically all the news and pictures coming steadily out of Kings Cross at the time, doing my citizen journalist bit...anyway, if you want to read my thoughts as I typed them then you are best off starting at the bottom of the 7th - click here to set the wayback machine to July - and then reading up...lots of pictures/thoughts about what happened on the day (from my perspective)...