7.14pm – Leave work at Sunspel, Old Compton Street
8.30pm – Arrive at Hackney Road x Pritchards Road. Access to Claredale House is blocked from all entrances. I ask a policeman if I can go inside cos I live ‘right there’. He says yes and tells me they found a WWII bomb which is why its blocked off.
8.45pm – Look up BBC and find its a casual 500 pound bomb, in a building site. Residents within 100m have been evacuated.
10.00pm – Call mum to wish her a Happy Birthday, tell her whats going on. Find it kinda of cool.
12.00am – Hear loud knocking across the street. Police have started to evacuate the other side of the road.
12.01am – Get dressed. Just incase…
12.29am – No one has come into Claredale yet but I’m not convinced they won’t. Should I leave anyway?
12.37am – Nothing still, might try sleep. Ugh.
12.51am – Police knock loudly on my door. Told to either leave the building, or sign on the dotted line.
01.20am – Walk half an hour to the local school, where I was told by police I’d be able to sleep. Arrive but all beds are full, lots more people were evacuated than expected.
01.30am – Find a nice corner to sit and charge my phone, wait until I receive a bed.
03.00am – A nice volunteer realises I’m still waiting, organises a bed for me herself. Sets me up in the school hall with pillow and sleeping bag.
03.01am – Crashed out to the max.
06.00am – Peoples alarms started going off for work, sleep slightly disrupted.
08.00am – After a few wake up calls, decide I should probably leave. Thank all the volunteers and wonder what to do with my day. I still wasn’t allowed back to Claredale, but luckily it was my day off.
08.30am – Cafe 331, order a big cheap and nasty fry up + pancakes, to make me feel better. It didn’t.
09.10am – Wander aimlessly around London. I had planned a day trip to Brighton this day, but decided to give it a miss as I would be getting back to London until late that evening.
~ The next few hours were spent walking around London, super tired and super teary. Highlight was walking to Borough Market and eating all the baklava tasters. ~
04.00pm – I was told via Twitter that people were starting to be let back in.
05.00pm – Completed my walk home from Oxford Street, had the best shower and sleep of my life.
This was one of the few moments I have felt really alone here. It was a really strange feeling to have nowhere to go and not even a car to sleep in. But I made it work, I always make it work. I don’t think life has ever challenged me as much as it has in the past two months. #betterforit
ROAM NYC-LDN 