As commuters streamed out of the newly reopened London Bridge railway station and over the bridge on Monday, some looked warily at the police cordon and vans. Others paused by the floral tributes left at the bridge’s south end where a van had ploughed into pedestrians on Saturday night.
The police cordon that closed the bridge and fenced off much of Southwark on Sunday was reduced, but streets around Borough Market remained out of bounds. The perimeter was enforced by police officers brought in from all over London, with armed police standing at the section of the cordons where representatives of the world’s media were gathered.
For people who work inside the police cordon, the morning was complicated. A businessman who asked not to be named, who works next door to a restaurant where some of the injured were treated, said police allowed him in to check on his offices. He described the scene as looking like “life had ceased”.
“No one’s touched a thing, just ready for forensics … There’s medical equipment on the floor and stuff like that,” he said.
His colleague described how medical kits were littered across the street, chairs were scattered and drinks were left half-drunk. “It’s kind of eerie,” said Robert Watson, who was allowed into his office at IPE pensions magazine on Southwark Road, where some staff were escorted by police through the cordon to their offices. “Normally it’s really, really full … it’s a solemn atmosphere.”
Many offices closer to the market were closed entirely and some businesses and homes remained out of bounds.
Anna, from Munich, who was visiting friends, asked when she would be allowed back to the flat in Stoney Street where she was staying. She was due to fly home on Monday but had not been allowed back to the flat to retrieve her passport. “Yesterday they told us we can’t come in. They don’t tell us how long it’s going to take,” she said. “I think there was a hotline but they couldn’t tell us anything either, except we have to call back.”
The shock of the attack had not yet caught up with her, she said: “I think the big shock will come when I’m back. It still feels unreal.”
Community wardens offered advice to those cut off from their usual routes to work. “I had six people out at 7am today,” the unit’s leader Philip Mann said. “We positioned ourselves around all the cordons because we knew that, once people started coming into the area, they would want to know how to get around.
“We’ve actually distributed probably in the region of 2,000 maps today alone. A lot of these people work in this area but they’re used to coming out of the station and going down a particular route that’s been cut off and they don’t know the way down another route.”
Television crews crowded nearly every entrance to the cordon. Inside, a forensics team could be glimpsed in the distance and police vehicles and tow trucks moved in and out.
At the perimeter, some people left flowers. Dave Austin, from Epping, was looking for the right place to leave a bunch. “I, like everybody else, was overwhelmed. I saw it on the telly … I can’t help but be moved,” he said. “London’s got a really subdued feeling this morning and it’s not supposed to feel like that.”
Alex Mitchell, from Hackney, had come to see the site. “I grew up in Manchester and the recent attacks there kind of hit a nerve with me … I just came to spend a quiet moment with the unfortunate people who lost their lives, and to try and promote peace.”
