Blog – What Samantha did next... Musings on July

EAST London is a funny old place. Native residents have an almost ancestral memory of bombs raining down during the Blitz. Those who survived don’t talk of death and destruction but about how people came together. There is an air of nostalgia for a time when you knew who your friends were.

The Royal London Hospital is in the heart of the East End. The hospital hosts the London Air Ambulance Service’s helicopter on a helipad on its roof and is, arguably, the city’s foremost trauma centre. Much of this is down to the efforts of one surgeon.

Mr W happened to be on duty on July 7, 2005, the day the bombs came back. What transpired there transpired in other hospitals around the capital. The wounded were treated, some were lost and others saved. The death toll from that day stands at 56.

Mr W was awarded an OBE for his work on that day. In an interview given to London’s Evening Standard newspaper marking the first anniversary of the bombings, he spoke about how the people who brought the wounded in didn’t want to be separated from them. He said that it was important to bring people back together.

Here in east London, led by Mr W, we come together every week for supper. We dine at The Famous Curry Bazaar on Brick Lane in Banglatown, home to the large Bangladeshi community and together with the restaurant’s staff we celebrate births, birthdays and weddings. We mark Ramadan and they mark Christmas.

Despite the efforts of those four bombers, we still know who our friends are.

What Samantha did next? Samantha was born to Cruella in 1971. She won a school prize for English when she was twelve and has a Masters Degree in Art History. Currently she labours in the health industry so that worked out well. Samantha used to be married to a man of Scottish descent. As she is of Jewish descent it was a very cheap wedding. Samantha now lives in London and loves its nooks and crannies and fabulous people. This blog is her way of sharing the city behind the big tourist attractions with you. Samantha has never climbed Mount Everest or swum with dolphins but when she grows up she wants to have a cat.