We've all seen the Instagram feeds of Londoners haven't we? The beautiful houses, the parks filled with autumn leaves and the late night lights of Tower Bridge twinkling. It's easy to think of London life as glamorous, but really, I will never be able to afford to houses, the park is cold and the only reason I'm at Tower Bridge to see the lights is because I was working till 1am.
The whole thing of not believing everything you see on social media has been said a thousand times before, but today I got thinking about an even more shitter side of London that nobody really talks about.
I was sat on the Tube on Friday, when an announcement came over the tannoy saying that the central line (aka the depths of hell) wouldn't be stopping at Bond Street or Oxford Circus. There wasn't a reason given and you could see everybody looking round edgily on the Tube. Apart from the drunk man who didn't even realise anything.
Someone else got on the Tube and told someone else (yes, strangers were talking on the Tube, that's when you know it's going down) that there'd been a shooting in Selfridges and then there was this weird kind of atmosphere across the carriage.
There was a look on everybody's face, but it wasn't the look I was expecting, or thought I should see. There wasn't really any panic, or shock, it was a kind of acceptance and pity.
I think that's what scares the most about this whole thing is that nobody is shocked anymore. I feel like everybody kind of expects it. I've been working in Central London now for a year and a half, and I've sort of pushed away the thoughts in my head that each day something could happen on my journey, or something could go wrong, because, quite frankly it's not worth worrying about.
But today it made me realise just how much it does scare me. And how much when you put everyone in a situation where it's right in front of them, it scares them too. I think everybody has become numb about the risks we put ourselves in every day. Nobody is shocked by anything anymore, it's become kind of acceptive and I think that's what scares me even more.
Whilst it turns out it was just a stampede on Friday (I believe), it does kinda show just how something can turn so quickly, clearly people on the platform were scared and the first thought in everybodys mind was terrorism. Because, well, thats what we think about a lot these days.
I don't really know what the point of this post was, but it kinda felt good to write it...
The whole thing of not believing everything you see on social media has been said a thousand times before, but today I got thinking about an even more shitter side of London that nobody really talks about.
I was sat on the Tube on Friday, when an announcement came over the tannoy saying that the central line (aka the depths of hell) wouldn't be stopping at Bond Street or Oxford Circus. There wasn't a reason given and you could see everybody looking round edgily on the Tube. Apart from the drunk man who didn't even realise anything.
Someone else got on the Tube and told someone else (yes, strangers were talking on the Tube, that's when you know it's going down) that there'd been a shooting in Selfridges and then there was this weird kind of atmosphere across the carriage.
There was a look on everybody's face, but it wasn't the look I was expecting, or thought I should see. There wasn't really any panic, or shock, it was a kind of acceptance and pity.
I think that's what scares the most about this whole thing is that nobody is shocked anymore. I feel like everybody kind of expects it. I've been working in Central London now for a year and a half, and I've sort of pushed away the thoughts in my head that each day something could happen on my journey, or something could go wrong, because, quite frankly it's not worth worrying about.
But today it made me realise just how much it does scare me. And how much when you put everyone in a situation where it's right in front of them, it scares them too. I think everybody has become numb about the risks we put ourselves in every day. Nobody is shocked by anything anymore, it's become kind of acceptive and I think that's what scares me even more.
Whilst it turns out it was just a stampede on Friday (I believe), it does kinda show just how something can turn so quickly, clearly people on the platform were scared and the first thought in everybodys mind was terrorism. Because, well, thats what we think about a lot these days.
I don't really know what the point of this post was, but it kinda felt good to write it...
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