BY EMILY RETTER Senior Feature Writer The terrorists do not get to win.. they don’t get to change our way of life
ATTACK ON BRITAIN: BOLD VOW TO REMAIN DEFIANT – LONDONER RICHARD ANGELL YESTERDAY
London Bridge is falling down is the stuff of nursery rhyme but, even after Saturday’s sickening attack, it is as rock solid as ever. The murderous attack on innocent revellers in London Bridge was intended to terrorise us all and bring our nation to its knees.
That was the killers’ hope. It quickly became clear they had not succeeded.
They had achieved the opposite. The victims of the outrage may be blooded and bruised but, like the bridge, they have not fallen down.
Instead it has given birth to a stronger, more united spirit.
This British doggedness is typified by diner Richard Angell, 33, who recalled a waiter jamming the door with his foot to make sure it stayed closed as the attackers rampaged down the street. Richard said: “These people [terrorists] shouldn’t win. This is the best city in the world. I’m not going to let the barbaric acts of cowardly people minimise that.
“I’ll be going back to the same restaurant to finish my meal, pay my bill and give them a double tip.
“If me having a G&T in a nice bar, flirting with handsome men, upsets them – I’m going to do it more.”
After the Manchester atrocity a fortnight ago, it was London’s turn to fight back against terror with a British blend of defiance, compassion, unity, and even a healthy dose of our trademark black humour.
Yesterday, #LondonBridgeisnotfallingdown was trending on Twitter.
Mandy Gardner tweeted: “Iron and steel will bend and bow, Bend and bow, bend and bow. But it won’t break.” At one Tube station, a scrawled message on the board read: “London Bridge will never fall down – you can’t break our spirit.”
At another: “The flower that blooms in adversity is the rarest and most beautiful of them all.” One more read simply: “Side by side we stand together.” In an unusually hushed Trafalgar Square, a police helicopter buzzed overhead as people scribbled messages of peace and hope, warmth and love, in chalk on the ground.
So much for London being frosty, stiff and stand-offish.
But it was not just words but actions that showed London’s unity.
Staff at the Arabica Bar & Kitchen, in Borough Market, protected their customers by quickly barricading them inside. And taxi drivers emerged as a force for good in the face of emergency. One modest cabbie, only known as Chris, tried to mow down the three knifemen with his car as they stabbed passers-by on Borough High Street. He then turned his efforts to alerting others to the danger.
He said: “I was shouting at everybody, ‘Just get away from the area, stay back, just run the other way’.”
As police herded terrified people, hands on their heads, it was cabbies who picked up the pieces, ferrying people to safety. Frightened people turned to social media to explain how Muslim taxi drivers especially had come to their aid with free lifts.
Twitter user @JessSmith97 said: “I have just had a Muslim taxi driver take me home and he has cried on me over the attacks tonight.” She added: “Terrorism has no religion.”
And @gxyred had been stranded in the area and said Muslim shopkeepers offered him food and a place to stay.
Barrister Lauren Whitehorn, 34, found herself walking the streets alone, after leaving a hen party to return to her home in Hitchin, Herts. Her bus had to stop, forcing passengers out. Then a black cab pulled over and the driver told her to jump in. She said: “There was a couple already in there, and we picked up another couple of girls on the way. He wouldn’t take any money. Then he said he was going back to collect more people.
“It was the first time I have shared a cab with strangers.
“It was a spirit of real unity, the opposite of what was intended.
“They were trying to make people afraid but it brought us together. People were speaking on the streets,
helping each other. If these attacks were supposed to divide and alienate us, it’s not working.”
Ironically, Lauren was in wartime fancy dress as she had been attending a Blitz-themed club night.
Then the Nazis had tried and failed to defeat us by dropping 30,000 incendiary bombs on London.
As the taxis rallied round, so too did the nearby hotels, taking in those who were evacuated.
The Crowne Plaza Hotel gave shelter to about 100 people, making them comfortable with towels for blankets. The foyer of the Shangri-La Hotel also provided sanctuary.
And as in Manchester, Facebook flooded with messages from those who lived in the area offering beds, food, and phone chargers. “If anyone is stranded, I have a space in Central London, near to Borough Market / Vauxhall / London bridge you cn stay. Don’t hesitate to dm” tweeted @juliusdein. His offer was one of hundreds.
Parents herded from hotels in the danger zone walked the riverside in pyjamas with sleeping kids in their arms, with good old British stoicism. Staff at a Sainsbury’s were pictured giving out food and drinks to police officers still working yesterday morning.
Youth activist Phaldip Singh tweeted a map highlighting the location of Sikh temples which would be open to all and provide food and shelter to people in need – regardless of their faith.
And when a New York Times headline accused us Brits of “still reeling” from the Manchester bombing, Harry Potter author J K Rowling responded with umbrage.
She tweeted: “The thugs who mowed down innocent people would love to think of the UK ‘reeling’ but it isn’t. Don’t confuse grief with lack of courage.” Then, naturally, the hashtag #ThingsThatLeaveBritainReeling began trending – jokingly citing half toasted toast as one example of what really gets our goat.
As a nation we may have cried and screamed but we will never change our ways or cower in fear.
When Londoner Annie Leary lost her home in Southwark, close to where Saturday’s attack took place, during the Blitz in September 1940, she told the press: “Hitler cannot break a cockney’s heart.” Today, she would be pleased to know London’s heart is still beating strong.