I really wasn’t sure what to expect.

I kind of thought that people wouldn’t take it seriously, that they’d just go with the flow and do it because everyone else was doing it.

But I was wrong.

At five to twelve today everyone from my office block duly filed out of the building. There was a strange, expectant hush as we stepped out onto Wardour Street, sun blazing down, life continuing as normal.

People began to line up on the other side of the road and within a few minutes there were hundreds of us.

At noon, everyone bowed their heads and stopped talking. Motorists stopped their cars, and everyone took two minutes out of their days to pay respect to those who lost their lives in the London bombings. We all stood there, strangers united in silence, our thoughts on the loved ones of the victims, of innocent lives lost, of the ‘it could have been me’ syndrome.

I was proud to be there on the road with all those other people and I couldn’t help but be touched by this resounding mark of respect. Some might think it was a small gesture, but having been there today and been part of it I came away thinking that it was a tremendous tribute to the survivors and those who lost their lives last Thursday.

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