Ten years ago today the country was hit by one of the worst atrocities ever witnessed on British soil, when 52 people were murdered and more than 700 people injured by four suicide bombers.
The bombings of 7 July 2005 took place on three Tube trains and a bus - 26 people died at Russell Square, six at Edgware Road, seven at Aldgate, and 13 people were killed on a double-decker bus in Tavistock Square.
Every day on London’s public transport people of all colours and creeds, from all parts of the world, sit down next to each other in peace and respect. That day ten years ago did nothing to change that.
In Tavistock Square and Russell Square today you can find the inheritors of the Bloomsbury tradition, literary and academic hopefulls attending the University of London or the School of Oriental and African Studies.
In Aldgate you can walk through streets inherited by Muslims from Heugonots and Jews. An old East End gateway to the city passed down from one generation of immigrants to the next.
The Edware Road route has its orgins as a Roman road, and in the Edgeware area and nearby one can find the heart of London’s Arab population, Americans in St John’s Wood and the traditional Irish area of Kilburn.
London has proved once again a lesson history keeps teaching us, that there is nothing stronger in this world, no greater barrier against a flood of hate, than people standing shoulder to shoulder together.
Every day we walk London’s streets together, we ride the trains and buses together, but most all we stand together.
