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There was an IRA bomb at the tower
• IN the review of book Semi-Detached (Nov 30) the author, Griff Rhys Jones, is quoted as admitting that one's memory can prove unreliable when writing of the past.
How right he is, for the review goes on to talk about the author's liking for the Post Office Tower (as it was called), and his regrets that it was closed to the public "when it was feared it would be targeted by the IRA..."
But the feared attack had already materialised, for in the early hours of Sunday morning, October 31, 1971, the peace of Fitzrovia and the
surrounding areas was shattered by a bomb in the tower that spewed forth a mass of debris onto the streets below.
At this stage Rhys Jones was only about 18 and presumably had not yet made it to Fitzrovia.
The reason I remember the incident so clearly is that I was a patient in the old St Pancras Hospital, recovering from minor surgery.
Incredibly, nobody was hurt despite the presence of late-night revellers who were tottering home after a good night out.
PETER RICHARDS
Highgate Road, NW5
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