29 January 1977 Saturday
The sun was out most of the day; the weather was quite pleasant.
We got off a little after 9:00 and took the bus, then tube downtown. We thought the N.C. National Bank would be open, but it wasn’t. We then went to Finchley and found the apt., which we liked, but there seemed to be others also interested in it. A Ms. Fox showed us around. We had lunch at an Italian restaurant in Finchley. We went to Goodge St. and saw the Pollock Toy Museum.
Then went to the British Museum for an hour or so. Mostly looked at Wm Caxton exhibit. Then we walked along Oxford St. and caught the bus back to our corner.
We noticed this morning that signs announced the closing of Oxford Circus and Bond St. Tube Stations, “because of bombing incidents.” On our trip back this p.m. we walked along Oxford St. and noticed roped off areas. After getting a paper we learned that a dozen bombs went off last night in the Oxford St. area. Apparently, the IRA claims credit.
29 January 2022 Saturday
One thing that's great about journaling is that occasionally the mundane intersects with history. The bombings started around midnight of the 29th and continued for about an hour.

The bombs were quite powerful, but luckily it was the middle of the night and the stores targeted were mostly empty. While the bars of Soho were still open, Oxford Street was not busy.
A taxi driver was injured when rubble partially buried his cab. Another person was trapped in the Selfridges for over an hour. Selfridges was one of the targets and suffered significant fire damage.

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