Our Motto: Travel Till You Can't Special Edition

 The London Terror Attacks, July 7, 2005

We Were There With Students

 

Photo from The Guardian

            There is much to learn on a Study Abroad trip to London, and to begin, this trip was no exception to our other brief summer Study Abroad trips I led when I was a professor at Southern Utah University. Doug always came with me, of course. I couldn't have done it without him.  We had done a London bus tour along with the giant Ferris Wheel over the Thames, so that students could get oriented to the city. I.m not sure why Doug is frowning in the picture, but most likely the guide had misstated some fact.

Kurt Harris, Doug, and I on the Tourist Bus.

 

        We were staying at Regent's College across from Regent's Park, and we had checked in, gotten out ID cards, and explored the area around us, especially Regent's Park so beautiful with its rose gardens, paths, and little coffee shop.

        The morning of July 7 was well planned. After a good breakfast and great cup of coffee at the college, we headed out to our nearest Underground stop, the Marlyebone Station. We were headed over to the Globe on the other side of the Thames. Part of our students' experience abroad was learning the Underground system as a way to get anywhere you wanted to in London--that, and walking, of course.

        We got to the station, only to see that the entrance was blocked off by a gate, and a sign was up that the station was closed. Frankly, we weren't concerned at all; it's not unusual for a station to shut down because of repairs or some malfunction in the system. 

        We just proceeded to Plan B, which was to take the bus.  But. Bus after bus kept passing by, not stopping, because it was too full already. I think we felt only a little uneasy as we put Plan C into action: Walk.  London is a great walking City, and the Globe was only three miles away. We figured we'd catch a bus or Underground when the morning rush was over.

        We had walked only a short distance, maybe a couple of blocks, when the sandwich boards with headlines on them began to appear on the sidewalks. As often happens, the people in the midst of chaos are often the last to find out what's going on. By this time there were ambulances and rescue trucks going in every direction, and all of us on the street were stunned at the headlines that read: "Terrorist Attacks on the Underground." 

        What do we do? What can we do? And what do our families back home know about what's happening, And are we safe?     

        My first thought was making sure the students were safe. Cell phones were hardly sophisticated in 2005, and I'm not sure any of us had one anyway. We stood on a corner, I think on Oxford Street, as I said, "We need to figure out how to get in touch with your parents." As if I had rubbed Aladdin's lamp, a gentleman from Barclay's bank stepped forward and said, "We have an international line in the bank, and you are welcome to use it." He lead us into a back room, showed us how to dial, and left us alone. It was morning in London, and I thought that no one would be awake in the states, but to a one, the parents had heard about the bombings and were frantic.  We were mostly stunned, so not showing much emotion, but I remember particularly when Meghan reached her parents, and I heard her say, "We're safe." And then I saw her burst into tears. 

        We still weren't clear about the extent of the attack and sirens were still sounding in all directions; later it became clear that three lines had been attacked and a bus had exploded at Tavistock Square, but for the moment, it sounded like utter chaos.

        "We'll walk," I said.  And we headed toward the Thames and onward to the Globe, while all around us, people were filling the streets, shops were closing down, as the city itself began to shut down. On our way to the Globe we stopped at St. Paul's, that sturdy and stalwart cathedral that had withstood the worst of the blitz. As we walked in we were greeted by someone who said, "All our clergy are at the scenes of the bombings, but you're welcome to come in for quiet time and to light a candle for those who have been killed or injured." And so we did just that. Twelve mostly LDS students and Doug and I sat in that stately space in silence, and one by one, we got up to light a candle, and filed quietly out of the cathedral.

 

Doug at the Top Of St. Paul's: Happier Times

 

        Across the Thames and at the Globe, there were three or four people working to refund tickets for that night's performance.  The students looked around at the space that we had hoped to tour before seeing the play that evening.

        As we started our return walk to Regent's College,  we saw an absolutely shut down London. All cars had been banished except for emergency vehicles, only a few shops remained open, and all public transportation was shut down, buses included. Londoners were walking calmly in the streets, speaking in low voices to one another. We came across one woman trying to figure out how to get home, since she loved eight miles away, but she resolutely started walking.

    Doug thought he had carefully planned our route back to Regent's, and he had. We followed him as he pointed out places of interest along the way in this ghost town that was London. I was so grateful for his calm presence and his deep knowledge of the city where he had holed up in Russell Square to finish his master's thesis and where he and his family  had lived for a year.

    I think he was talking to us all about the Bloomsbury group, when we turned a corner and found ourselves at Tavistock Square, where lay the twisted ruins of the bus that had been bombed.

    We stopped dead in our tracks and gaped. There were a few people taking pictures, and some of our group did that too. And some of us left that scene as soon as possible, breathless over what we had just seen. 

 

NPR Image of Bus at Tavistock Square

         We made it back to Regent's College, and spent the rest of the night watching CNN coverage and finding out how the tragedy of that day evolved. All airlines announced that there would be no charges for people changing their flights to leave London. I told the students that we would work with getting them back home, but none of them wanted to leave.

         The next day, a few lines on the Underground had opened, and Doug offered to take students to the Imperial War Museum, which had been on the agenda. About five students decided to go with him on the Underground, and so they took off. That Doug! "Once more unto the breach!" There was no way I was taking the Underground, so the rest of us walked to the London Zoo. 

        Fifty-two people were killed in London that day and many more injured. It was an unplanned lesson in tragedy, chaos, kindness, and courage