Give my regards to 55, Broadway.

Art Deco flourished through the 20s & 30s popularised by the Paris Exhibition of 1925and was applied to all forms including architecture. Influences included Cubism (with zigzags & geometricals), Ancient Egypt (following the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun by Howard Carter & Lord Carnaervon in 1922) and Aztec & Mayan art (from South America & Mexico). It was a machine age style which utilised the innovations of the times such as plastics, chrome & aluminium. At a time of economic depression and the approach of war there was a desire for escapism. People enjoyed the pleasures of life during the 'Jazz Age'. Speed and streamlining became important especially in the new modes of travel such as the first commercial flights, trains such as the Orient Express and ocean-going liners. It was also a very appropriate style to apply to a transport undertaking such as the London Underground looking to develop a house style and image from the amalgam of private operations which had constructed the original Tube.



There was a fortunate meeting in the 20’s and 30’s in London of a British Arts and Crafts revival, talented immigrants from Eastern Europe and Germany and corporate sponsors of posters, art and design such as the GPO, Shell Oil and last but no means least, London Transport.

55 Broadway - Original Ground Floor layout


55 Broadway - New reception area


Foundation Stone

In the 20s & 30s London Transport owed much of its corporate design to Frank Pick especially in his employment of Charles Holden as architect from 1924. In 1931 they went on a tour of Scandanavia and the Netherlands which gave them some inspiration. On his return Holden worked on the Piccadilly line designing stations such as Osterley and Southgate, many occupying corner sites. The distinctive house style was applied to all new stations built in the 1930s including those designed by other architects. The influences from Pick and Holden’s European tour are clearly seen in many station buildings with, for instance, the “totem” on Osterley Station on the Piccadilly Line echoing the “Telegraaf” Amsterdam by Staal and Langhout.

Charles Holden 1875 - 1960


A leaflet from the Black Country firm of Rubery, Owen & Co. who did the steelwork. The photo shows the construction method - A structural Steel Frame with Portland Stone cladding

When it was completed in 1929, The London Underground's new headquarters, named after its postal address of 55, Broadway, was London's tallest office block. A skyscraper of its day, it is now dwarfed by almost every major office building in the city. But that doesn't stop it from appearing monumental. Inside it houses the headquarters of London Underground, St. James's Park Station and the small Broadway shopping arcade.




55 Broadway shopping mall


First use of cruciform plan for a London office building

1929 - The tallest office building in London

In 1926 The Underground Group commissioned 55 Broadway, over St James's Park station, as its new headquarters. It was to replace Electric Railway House, whose offices were too cramped for the growing organisation. The headquarters was to symbolise the company's vision of public transport being at the heart of London's social and commercial life. Frank Pick, assistant managing director of the Underground Group, commissioned the architect Charles Holden of the firm Adams Holden and Pearson to design the building. On its completion in 1929, 55 Broadway was the tallest office building in London on one side overlooking the Houses of Parliament and on the other side overlooking Buckingham Palace. The Directors had a clear idea of their place in the world! However, building restrictions prevented the floors above the seventh being used as offices. The modern and assertive design was considered an architectural masterpiece with the cruciform layout enabling natural light and ventilation throughout. It was awarded the London Architectural Medal by the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1929.




A typing pool on 4th Floor East Wing showing the open plan offices


Monument on the Ground Floor staircase lobby to Lord Ashfield, founder of London Transport

The Underground Group's desire to make a bold architectural statement in keeping with the ideals of the company had been realised. The obsession with clear design and image was continued through to Harry Beck’s famous schematic map, commissioning its own “machine typeface” to make its posters, signage and publications clearer, building instantly recognisable branded station buildings and station fittings and using engaging and innovative advertising in the 30’s. Today London Underground’s trademark roundel is the second most recognised brand worldwide.

Electro Magnetic train frequency "Clocks" in Reception

Holden commissioned some of the most famous sculptors of the day to carve large figurative reliefs, depicting the four winds, directly onto the stonework. These are high up each side of the four wings. The sculptors were Eric Gill, Henry Moore, Eric Aumonier, Samuel Rabinovitch, Allan Wyon and Alfred Gerrard. Holden commissioned Jacob Epstein to create two groups over the entrance fronts called “Day” and “Night”. Their primitive, vital style and the figures' nudity created a furore. Both Pick and Holden stood by the sculptor, Pick even tendering his resignation in support of Epstein. His resignation was not accepted and the sculptures stayed. However an inch and a half had to be removed from the penis of the figure in 'Day', as the original size offended contemporary sensibilities. Epstein's sculptures were not universally slated. One contemporary commentator wrote, “When one looks at them one hardly likes them, but they make such a powerful impression on the mind that when one has left the building they stand out in the memory and seem vividly to symbolise their subjects”. The same commentator went on to say “one would be happier if all buildings were as good as this.”


Staircase to First Floor


Henry Moore "West Wind"

The other sculptures on the building are also worthy of mention. Eric Gill was put in charge of "The Winds" which adorn the higher walls of the building. He created three himself, the others were by contemporary artists including Henry Moore, whose "West Wind" was his first public commission, and can be seen on the north side of the east wing.






Jacob Epstein "Day"

"Buildings of Britain" by Nicholas Pevsner and Bridget Cherry, 1973. noted;

“Broadway architecturally means No.55, the headquarters building of LONDON TRANSPORT, by Charles Holden, 1927-9, a bold building for London and its date, even if in some ways still keeping a retreat open to the broad Georgian road. The composition in blocks and their stepping back high up in is entirely of the 20th Century. Functionally it is ingenious. The building had to combine the necessities of an underground station with a large number of offices. So a large part of the area is one storeyed. The centre tower is 175 feet high, containing lifts, staircases, lavatories etc. It has a square, gradually diminishing top. From the tower extend four spurs. What there is of sculptural decoration is of extreme interest, two large groups by Epstein, 'Day' and 'Night' (East side of North and South wings). E. Aumonier (West and North Wing), A.Wyon (West and North Wing), A. H. Garrard (West Side, South Wing), and F. Rabinovitch (South Side, East Wing). They are considered revolutionary at the time, and Dr Holden had to use all his persuasion to have them accepted. Architectural detail is curiously undecided. The ground floor has granite columns; they are circular piers rather than columns, it is true, and have plain blocks as capitals, but they appear as columns all the same. The windows are upright and have glazing bars reminiscent of Georgian sash window, and the spurs are connected by diagonal arches high up and close to the junction of the tower.”




1st Floor Central Lobby and entrance to East Wing - The texture of the Travertine Marble was to give the impression of movement

55, Broadway has also been a direct contributor the design of clear modern typefaces. A sans-serif typeface was commissioned in 1913 by Frank Pick, Commercial Manager of the London Electric Railway Company (also known as “The Underground Group”), as part of his plan to strengthen the company's corporate identity. In 1933, The Underground Group become a major part of London Transport and the typeface was adopted for the complete network.


Boardroom 7th Floor


The listed oak lined corridor on the 7th Floor leading to the Boardroom and Chairman's office

The font family was originally called "Underground", it became known as "Johnston's Railway Type", and later simply "Johnston". It comes with 2 weights, Heavy and Ordinary. Heavy contains only capital letters. Johnston's former student Eric Gill also worked on the development of the typeface and the design was later to influence his Gill Sans typeface, produced 1928–1932. Frank Pick later commissioned Percy Delf Smith (another former pupil) to draw up a 'petit-serif' adaptation of the typeface, originally for the headquarters building at 55 Broadway, SW1.





55, Broadway was a pioneering building in a number of ways. It very cleverly uses an irregular shaped site by using a cruciform plan with the arms being different lengths but giving a visually symmetrical appearance when seen on its corner elevation from Toothill Street. By using a cruciform arrangement (Which Holden and other architects were using for hospitals, such as St. Luke’s in Malta, which he designed) the light wells were brought out from the centre of the building to make maximum use of available light with lifts and services placed centrally, reducing corridor lengths. Following American practice, offices were open plan, permitting the spread of light and making their layout easy to alter.


The American Cutler mail handling system which delivered letters directly to the basement mail room

There were other innovations such as a central mail handling system whereby it could be “posted” on each floor and go directly down a chute to the mailroom in the basement. The plan also allowed natural ventilation throughout so the building does not need energy greedy aircon to this day.




Former Chairman's Office - 7th Floor

Despite its Portland Stone appearance the construction was entirely modern utilising a structural steel frame so the stone cladding is just that. It was built on 700 piles on airspace above St James Park Station and is the prototype for the many similar developments throughout London built over the “cut and cover” sections of the Underground which to this day make a substantial contribution to improving the railway. In one pile was placed a “time capsule” with notes about the building and the Underground and containing photographs of the site, a railway car and a bus. The building was set back above the seventh, ninth and tenth floors in line with the London Building Acts requirements. These helped to delineate the hierarchy with the Directors offices on the 7th Floor where the East Wing still contains the original oak clad boardroom and Chairman’s offices whose interiors are listed.

In the 1980s the ground floor of the building was redesigned to create a new, improved reception area and a shopping mall. 55 Broadway is now a Grade II listed building.




10th Floor restaurant - Originally Director's Dining Room


One of the four 10th Floor Roof Gardens

The builders of 55, Broadway saw good design as good for business. By the example it set under Frank Pick the Underground was gradually able to change the public’s attitude to railway stations which had been seen as shabby and inhospitable places. Sir Nicholas Pevsner wrote that Pick saw in every detail a “visual propaganda” and he used this not only to improve the Underground but the environment as a whole. Charles Holden brought the Underground station to the forefront of modern architecture: This achievement is unequalled by any other transport company before or since.


St. James Park Station entrance

The apex of his achievement for the Underground and the building which proclaims its sense of purpose and commitment to the people of London is 55, Broadway. As the Blitz and the 2005 London Tube bombings more recently have shown this is not any ordinary transport undertaking but a publicly owned company synonymous with a public duty to the city where it runs the world’s largest metro system. With property values in London becoming more unreal due to Non Doms. and the like, no doubt some wide boys (Generally called “consultants” or “rising stars”) will look at the possibility of asset stripping this unique listed building and creating a “new culture” in some god forsaken rented cubicle factory. No doubt this will promote co-operative working by having an atrium with some poor imitation of a Calder mobile representing a tube train and a statue of an ordinary tube worker looking up at it saying “this costs a fortune and we’ll never own it!” The same wide boy asset strippers would never think it is sensible to sell their own house and move into a trailer park.



Nope, the Underground doesn’t need this ersatz corporate culture for it has a real mission of a World Class Tube for a World Class City. And in 55, Broadway it has the real deal, an award winning, iconic, paid for, fit for purpose building over a tube station whose purpose and intent is captured on the poster issued when it opened “London’s Underground – Always at Your Service.”

For more on Architecture and Design see ArchiBlogs in the Blog sidebar.

Three and Out?

The longer in the tooth you get you learn there are two things you should never be judgemental about, relationships and suicides.

A film has been criticised by train driver's union ASLEF for its portrayal of deaths on the London Underground. "Three and Out" features a driver who witnesses two accidents and is told if a third person dies he will lose his job but will get a "huge payoff".

Writing on the union's website general secretary Keith Norman said the plot was "insulting and foolish". The distribution company said the light-hearted film took "great care" to handle "heartfelt issues" sensitively.

The driver, played by actor McKenzie Crook, witnesses two accidental deaths while at work and is traumatised by it, the film company said. But he sets out to seek the third person to give up their life under his train after colleagues explain that he will receive "enough cash to pay off his debts and retire to a Scottish idyll".

Now some things need to be said:

Firstly, the entire premise of the movie is false (there are no "pay offs") and I agree with ASLEF as suicide or attempted suicide is a serious matter and it causes great trauma to drivers and those involved in the unedifying aftermath.

Secondly, the Underground is not a good place to pursue this thought as most attempts actually end in hideous injuries, not to mention the distress to staff, police and para-medics who are just going about their job and passengers (including children) who are just trying to get from A to B. Selfish and distressing behaviour indeed.

Thirdly, potential suicides are not in control, are suffering from severe depression for which they need help and assistance and are highly suggestible so publicity about suicides will actually result in more attempts and unwarranted deaths or in most cases, grotesque injuries. People who survive generally move on and can't believe they made such an irrational judgement at a point in their lives when they were uniquely vulnerable.

Here is the Movie trailer to make up your own mind but do we really need to make movies like this to make money? Suspect this is another British World Beater which won't beat anything.

http://threeandoutmovie.com/

Mind the Gap

For a London Underground commuter there is probably nothing more grating than young visitors on the Tube endlessly repeating “Mind the Gap” in a loud voice to their friends as if it was the funniest expression on the planet. Still in more considered moments it is a sign that this expression has now gained a life of its own and has been the subject (and title) of books, articles, campaigns and even a movie!

“Mind the Gap” is not just an announcement that you'll hear on London's Underground railway system when a train arrives at a station. Much more than just a warning about the “gap” between a carriage and the platform, it's a phrase that has entered popular culture and become synonymous with London. People who have visited England's capital city say “Mind the Gap” to each other - often accompanied by knowing glances and subtle nods - while the rest of the world wonders what they are on about.

“Mind the Gap” is part of the London mindset. The phrase originated on the Northern Line, where the gaps between the curved train platforms at Embankment Station and the train itself were particularly large.

The biggest gaps one needs to mind are at Bank Station on the Central line and at Waterloo Station on the Bakerloo line. Basically, early in the history of Tube-line building the companies had to build their railways beneath public roads, so sharp curves were required at some points. Allegedly, the slightly-off-putting gap at Bank is so large because the tunnel diggers of the time had to swerve a lot to miss the Bank of England's vaults.

Pity then the dolorous tale of one Emma Clarke who has enjoyed many years of anonymous fame as the voice heard by millions of Tube travellers each day, warning them to “Mind the Gap”. But now a gap has opened in the career of Emma Clarke after she criticised the Underground system and spoofed her own announcements on the internet.



TfL bosses have said that they will not provide the voiceover artist with any more work. A Transport for London spokesman said: “London Underground is sorry to have to announce that further contracts for Ms Clarke are experiencing severe delays.”

Ms Clarke, 36, from Altrincham, Cheshire, criticised the system in a newspaper interview after she produced spoof announcements on her website. She apparently said that while living in Highgate, North London, she used to take the Tube every day, but had refused to use it any longer because it was “dreadful”.

Ms Clarke, whose voice is now well known to the estimated billion passengers who use the Tube network each year, put her joke messages on the website she created this month after asking friends what they would most like to hear.

Ms Clarke said she was “very disappointed” and upset at the reaction of TfL, but still harboured hope that the row with the network could be resolved. “The first step is for us to have a conversation,” she said. “I hope they hear my point of view, and take on board that I wasn’t criticising London Underground or the Tube system.”

In a report in The Times, she said that the comments had been taken out of context. “I did not say that the Northern Line was dreadful. I did say it’s a challenging line. What I did say was dreadful was the thought of being in a Tube train listening to my own voice.” Emma, who is also an actress and playwright obviously moved to the country (Cheshire) from London for a lifestyle change and put up a rather good website to showcase her talents; http://www.emmaclarke.com/ It includes a whole page on the Tube with lots of links and background information which shows some affection and admiration for the Tube but even its most ardent admirers do, at times, get fed up when things go wrong but more especially with the sometimes selfish and inconsiderate behaviour of fellow passengers who forget notions of neighbourliness in Tube carriages.


Emma Clarke

These are reflected in some of Emma Clarke's Tube spoofs on her website;

In one spoof announcement she said: “Here we are crammed again into a sweaty Tube carriage . . . If you are female, smile at the bloke next to you and make his day. He’s probably not had sex for months.”

Peeping Toms were singled out in another message when she said: “Would the passenger . . . pretending to read a paper but who is actually staring at that woman’s chest please stop. You’re not fooling anyone, you filthy pervert.”

In another one spoof, Ms Clarke attacked the mindset of some Londoners. She said: “Residents of London are reminded that there are other places in Britain outside your stinking city and, if you remove your heads from your backsides for just a couple of minutes, you may realise the M25 is not the edge of the Earth.”

In another she said: “Passengers should note that the bearded rucksack contains the following items only: some sandwiches, a library card and picture of a bare ankle, and is no cause for concern.”

“Passengers are asked not to drop litter on the train. Please use the tramps provided”

“Passengers are reminded a smile is a friendship signal, not a sign of weakness”

“We would like to remind our American tourist friends that you are almost certainly talking too loudly”

“Would passengers filling in their Su Dokus please accept that they are just crosswords for the unimaginative and are not more impressive because they contain numbers.”

“Would the passenger in the pinstripe suit and £1,000 glasses who obviously works in the media please take one step forward on to the track”

The fame of “Mind the Gap” is widespread. “Mind the Gap” was the name chosen for a pictorial book put together by Simon James. As well as the excellent, often quirky pictures of the London Underground, this book also features a commentary on stations to be found at the end of Tube lines. In the book's foreword, Michael Palin,- campaigner for better public transport (and well known traveller) - writes:

“”Mind the Gap”, perhaps the most famous phrase associated with the London Underground, must surely have the creators of the system spinning in their graves. It's an acknowledgement that the thing doesn't quite work. That however fast and frequent the service, however comprehensive the network, the trains don't always fit the platforms. There's not much in it - but enough to warrant painted signs and recorded warnings.

It is very much a book about gaps, not just gaps between the train and the platform, but between the designer and user, staff and passenger. And between dreams and reality, “Mind the Gap” in capturing the elusive appeal of the stations at the ends of the lines, gives gentle but perceptive insights into the way we live now.”

There was a short-lived TV game show called Mind the Gap. Hosted by Paul Ross, the set mirrored a tube platform.

The set is a side-on Underground platform - very nicely executed, with the proper London Underground symbols and typography. The tunnel contains a massive screen which displays the Underground map, and seems to use a projector rather than a TV wall. Music is a jazz-style affair, with a kind of scratching sound effect of a man going 'M-M-M-Mind the Gap' over the top. Looks like it's destined straight for the Challenge TV channel on cable.1

One of the funniest urban legends about 'Mind the Gap' is as follows:

“Once you are on a train platform, beware! Approaching trains sometimes disturb the large Gappe bats that roost in the tunnels. The Gappes were smuggled into London in the early 19th Century by French saboteurs and have proved impossible to exterminate. The announcement 'Mind the Gappe!' is a signal that you should grab your hair and look towards the ceiling. Very few people have ever been killed by Gappes, though, and they are considered only a minor drawback to an otherwise excellent means of transportation.”



The female voice for the recorded announcement of 'Mind the Gap' is nicknamed 'Sonia' by tube drivers. Why? Because her voice 'gets so on yer nerves', they collectively reply. Apparently 'Sonia' is thought to be a bit too posh in some circles. In recent tests somebody mimicking the voice of Marilyn Monroe proved to be a favourite.

The “Mind the Gap” announcement has been sampled into music tracks by at least two dance bands. Lectrolux's Mind the Gap can be heard on an album called Sounds of the Hoover 2 (CD2). It is also on Pumpin by the musicians Novy Vs Eniac.

And like most minor celebrities “Mind the Gap” has had a bit part in the movies. A 1970s horror film sporting the somewhat off-putting name(s) The Death Line or Raw Meat featured ghoulish man-eating underground troglodytes. These beasts constantly repeated the phrase 'Mind the Doors' (OK, so it's not “Mind the Gap”, but it's close). The film 'stars' Donald Pleasance and Christopher Lee. Its fairly absurd plot revolves around a turn of the century cave-in on the London Underground. Pleasance plays a detective investigating a string of murders who is handicapped by a distinct lack of corpses. Presumably, they were eaten by the cannibal Tube dwellers from days of yore. “Beneath modern London buried alive in its plague-ridden tunnels lives a tribe of once humans” the poster for the film screams. “Neither men nor women, they are less than animals... they are the raw meat of the human race.”


Mind the Gap

Indeed, these are not sentiments Tube commuters would agree with! As for Emma Clarke herself the torrent of publicity can only have clients queuing at her door and she is obviously a “Star” so I hope TfL and she will have the “conversation” she has asked for. I leave the last word to a supportive email she received from the United States published on her website;

“I read with dismay about your ‘sacking’ by Transport for London. I have visited England a few times as a tourist since you began your tenure with TfL. My wife and I always use the Tube to get around London and did admire its service. I want to register a protest with TfL for its lack of a sense of humour! In this day and age we should recognise what is important, and what can add a bit of a smile to our days. Your “spoofs” were separate from the Tube and could not have confused or dismayed any passengers travelling. In the US, Southwest Airlines is known for its flight attendants joking commentary made before, during and after a flight. No one at Southwest has felt it necessary to reprimand or “sack” an employee who has injected some levity into their travel. It’s time for TfL to get a sense of humour, rehire you and maybe even use a few of your “spoofs” either in advertising or in the Tube. Please forward this e-mail to TfL.”

The Death of Jean Charles de Menezes

Jean Charles de Menezes was shot dead by Metropolitan Police firearms officers at Stockwell Tube station, London, on July 22nd. 2005. Bizarrely the Met(as the Metropolitan Police or Scotland Yard are commonly known) is being prosecuted under English Law not for Murder or Manslaughter but under Health and Safety legislation for failing to protect the health of Jean Charles de Menezes and members of the public who were exposed to danger in the operation. Indeed.

The details revealed so far in court are of a 27 year old electrician peacefully going to work unaware he was being trailed, not being intercepted as a possible suspect, getting on and off two buses, wearing jeans and a T-shirt and a light jacket with no baggage or possibility of concealing anything on his person, going routinely through station barriers and pausing to pick up a free newspaper, taking his seat on a tube train.

There he was held without challenge by a police officer who immobilised him by holding his arms around him in a vice like grip whilst his two colleagues fired 7 special "124 grain" dum-dum style bullets into his head at point blank range. The details of this killing have appalled and dismayed the public in equal measure and common sense would suggest these feelings will not be addressed by a prosecution under "Health and Safety" legislation - this being somewhat beyond satire. I think we can take it as read that if you kill somebody wrongly you have not protected their "Health and Safety."

Scotland Yard have real issues to answer about the apparent ineptness of the operation and about the large amount of uncorrected disinformation disseminated afterwards from the Commissioner downwards that this innocent persons' killing was "related to the ongoing terrorist situation", that he behaved suspiciously, ran away from officers, vaulted over ticket barriers and was wearing "bulky clothing". As none of this was true, where did it come from?

Hindsight is a great teacher, it is always a pity we don't have it beforehand, but there is another side to this sad story. Fifteen days previously on the 7th July 2005 4 suicide bombers had detonated 3 bombs on the Tube and one on a London bus. They killed 52 people (and themselves) in the biggest mass murder in peacetime Britain. The roll call of the dead is heart rending encompassing a typical cross section of Londoner's going about their day, young and old from every continent, colour and religious persuasion including a 19 year old Muslim girl on the threshold of her life. Of the 4 "brave" martyrs one was a 19 year old Jamaican Muslim convert who lived near me in Aylesbury and who took 26 lives on a Piccadilly Line train between Russell Square and King's Cross. What did a 19 year old know about life and what sort of crypto fascism justifies this cruel obscenity towards people you do not know but look in the eye before killing and maiming them? Maimed indeed for as well as the dead there were over 300 injured, some who lost limbs and eyes and some who will never live independent lives again.

I was in London that day and for a number of days afterwards spent afternoons and evenings helping people cope with the transport disruption. Two things were palpable. one was the great determination that London would not be brought to its knees by what happened, there was the quiet unseen courage of the Tube and Bus drivers who climbed into cabs at dawn the next morning and in their own way said "let's Roll!". The sense of determination was shared by the public who displayed stoic courage by insisting on going about their everyday business and not being terrorised even if it meant walking halfway across London to work.

Nerves were of course there under the surface but they had recovered somewhat when exactly 2 weeks later on the 21st July 2005 there was almost a carbon copy attempt of 4 suicide bomb attacks on the transport system in London by fanatics equally determined to destroy their fellow unknown human beings. This second attempt nearly succeeded and only failed because they had made a small error in the formulation of the homemade but deadly explosives they attempted to detonate. This second attempt was a great shock to the system, to the morale of Londoner's and no doubt to the security services who felt they had bottomed out all the leads and had stabilised the situation.

Now along with all of London they were looking into the abyss and not knowing what they were looking at or where the next threat would come from. What is happening and how many more are out there? - was the general public feeling. It was Jean Charles de Menezes great misfortune that he lived in a block of flats which was also the address of Hussain Osman, one of the failed suicide bombers from the day before and he was not entirely dissimilar in appearance given the limited identification information the police had to go on.

No doubt these court proceedings and further inevitable investigations will draw their own conclusions and I'm not attempting to anticipate them, but I make two observations of my own.

One is that society as a whole is not pacifist. We expect that the welfare of all is protected and logically that means we assent to people killing on our behalf. So we agree an Army is maintained and we expect it to kill and its troops to accept the possibility they will also be killed in combat. If an embassy is besieged, if a plane is hijacked or if a deranged gunman walks down the street killing at will we expect somebody to deal with the threat on our behalf. And if a suicide bomber is apprehended before he can blow us up we expect they will be killed. On the morning of the 22nd July 2005, the Met, a civilian police force had called in all the help it could get from the Defence and Security services and was trying to cover an impossible number of bases not knowing where the next threat was or where it would come from. Wherever fault lays in this sorry story it does lay with the three armed officers acting under orders who entered a Tube train to stop what they thought was Hussain Osman detonating a bomb.

The second point is who those of us who live and work in London felt that morning. Shamefully, I can remember my reaction was "Good on them, they got one!" and I can tell you in feeling that I was in a majority of, well, everybody. For at that stage, below the surface, there was a palpable sense of fear about town. And that is the point of the sheer obscenity and ruthless cruelty the suicide bomber. It desensitises all of us and for the sake of our protection makes us accept in our heart that which we would not normally accept in our head.

That desensitivity is something we all must fight against because otherwise the bomber has won and that must and will never happen. In this case it means we must, however difficult it may seem, try to do two things. Respect the memory of Jean Charles de Menezes and the grief of his family and respect the courage of the Police Officers who, out of a profound sense of public duty, did the unthinkable on all our behalves.