it was 10 years ago today - where were you?

[miss minnie]

at home brixton road down angel town way. it was overcast and there was what i thought was a clap of thunder. the computer monitor suddenly cycled off then on again and the cat, who had been asleep, shot into the air with fur on end. i had no idea what had just happened until i switched on the telly some time later.

 

[fjydj]

...was walking down brixton hill just outside the town hall, heard the explosion and saw all the smoke and damage ... I'm sorry to say I did nothing to help and went straight to the Trinity for a stiff drink.

...my lasting memory of it all was that there was also a huge clap of thunder right overhead shortly afterwards that got me throwing myself under a car thinking another bomb was going off.

 

[Maggot]

was the bomb not on the 17 April?
I was in Dublin thinking the RA had struck

You're right. 17th April it was. With the Brick Lane one a week later and the Soho one 6 days after that.

where was the Cambria? I assume it was a pub?

Kemerton Rd, Loughbrough Jnc. Decent backstreet pub with alluring mix of locals and ner-do-wells. And Maggot living upstairs.

It still is a pub, appears to be doing quite well from my visit last week.

 

[100% masahiko]

I was working for some met contractors that did the layouts for road traffic and crime scenes. We were at our desks talking shit and smoking weed when it happened.

 

[Mrs Magpie]

.... the walls shook - twice.......the first blast.....

Were there two blasts? I thought there was just the one.

 

[skyscraper101]

At school

 

[billythefish]

Working in South Ken... didn't realise what had happened until I switched on the evening news...

I missed the Admiral Duncan blast by about twenty minutes though... I heard it go off as I was cycling to Waterloo and knew instinctively that it was a bomb (I had been near the Israeli Embassy when that was bombed too...)

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

I was in the White Horse. Was about to go to cashpoint in Brixton as I'd run out of money but then thought I heard thunder (the bomb going off), so friend lent me money to save me getting caught in a storm

oh, seeing post no. 32 reminds me that there was actually thunder around the same time, but we obviously thought the bomb going off was thunder as well

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

At home just off Elm Park Road....Heard the bang, thought is was thunder in the distance.

where's that?

 

[shygirl]

Like editor, I got delayed up town - Zarah had just opened in Regent st and I spent about an hour in there. My usual routine at that time was to shop in the market late for reduced fruit and veg. Had to get out of Stockwell tube station, and remember walking up Stockwell Rd thinking how eerie things seemed. The sky was grey and there was a kind of hush over the entire place. I didn't find out what had happened until I reached the YMCS, and then panicked cos my son had stayed south and was out roller blading.

 

[Greebo]

I was at home, checking my email, and thinking about going to Brixton market later in the day. Heard the bang, but from here (near St Martin's library) it just sounded like a firework.

 

[Meerkat]

I was at work across the road in the since departed 'Our Price', next to the Body Shop. I was behind the counter at the back of the shop and facing Brixton Road. When there was the bang we initially thought it was a gas explosion. We had already had some thunder too that afternoon but this sounded different. We could see people in the street stopped dead in their tracks and all looking in the direction of the Town Hall. Then suddenly everyone started running in the opposite direction away from the scene. Not long after the old bill told us to shut the shop and leave the area, which we did promptly and ended up in the Duke of Edinburgh.

A very sad but also very surreal day. Won't be forgetting it in a hurry.

 

[ajdown]

Is there any kind of memorial event planned today?

 

[newbie]

I found out about it from the Daily Express on a plane, coming home. The kids had stayed at home in Brixton so that couple of hours flight is rather imprinted on my memory.

 

[bluestreak]

I was at uni, and shortly afterwards was predicting that this was the beginning of a new wave of race wars. Thank fuck I was completely and utterly wrong. Like OU the Duncan affected me more as it was an area I knew quite well, Brixton wasn't on my mental map especially back then. If anyone had told me a decade ago I'd be living here and in love with the place in 2009 I'd have thought them quite quite mad.

 

[internetstalker]

I was in Belfast.

I heard about the bomb via my pager which would send me news clippets from time to time

 

[newbie]

the kids were safe, so we went marketing in Brick Lane and back to work in Soho.

I'm glad he was caught.

 

[Pie 1]

I was on my way to a friends' in Forest Hill having been in the vicinity about 20 mins earlier.

(The Duncan was far worse though as I was in the pub just around the corner & witnessed the awful moments immediately afterwards)

 

[isvicthere?]

Were there two blasts? I thought there was just the one.

I'm sure there were two. But memory can certainly deceive.

 

[ajdown]

I was just down the market, and the plaque was looking rather sorry for itself. You'd have thought the council might have sent someone round with a tin of brasso to polish it up with today coming.

 

[quimcunx]

I was at home at the Brixton end of Ferndale road, having bought some fruit at that stall beside Iceland an hour before (probably when that guy was there ).

I heard a loud bang and my first thought was it was a bomb or explosion. I had a look out the kitchen window but the couple of people i could see didn't look panicked or anything. Then I heard a huge clap of thunder and thought that must be what the first one was and didn't see anything more until the news.

 

[quimcunx]

I was just down the market, and the plaque was looking rather sorry for itself. You'd have thought the council might have sent someone round with a tin of brasso to polish it up with today coming.

There's a plaque?

 

[ajdown]

Yeah this one.

http://www.urban75.org/brixton/photos/238.html

 

[Mrs Magpie]

To be honest I thought that plaque looked a bit cheap when it first went up. It's still all in one piece. I thought it might not be robust enough to last.