On the streets: Far from falling down, London Bridge was holding up yesterday as thousands of people marched defiantly out of the City beneath leaden skies.
The unremitting summer downpour did little to deter the exodus from the financial capital, nor did it, or anything else, appear to sap London's spirit.
The horrific nature of the multiple bombings that killed almost 40 people at peak hour had sunk in by lunchtime, but Londoners appeared more willing to brace themselves for a long walk home than to wallow in self-pity and shock.
Deadly explosions are nothing new here, and the attacks that ripped through the city from Marlybone in the west to Moorgate in the east were more expected than shocking.
The spirit of the city was summed up by an old soldier en-route to a regimental reunion. "We'll get through," he said. A security guard 40 years his junior, queuing at a cafe for a cup of tea after being evacuated from a Marks and Spencer outlet in nearby Gracechurch Street, said: "It reminds me of when I was a kid, when there were terrorist attacks. We've seen this before, haven't we?" Besuited groups gathered around television screens for the latest news as mobile telephone operators switched network capacity to emergency use, leaving many people without means of communicating. Sirens from ambulances and police cars dominated an eerily empty city, as public transport came to a standstill and traffic on the roads not closed by police succumbed to silent gridlock.
Long queues stretched along the bank of the River Thames at Canary Wharf, the high-rise business district in East London, scene of an IRA bombing in 1996, for one of the few modes of public transport still running in the wake of the attacks: free ferries to the West End.
"Let's go on a pub crawl," one man was overheard suggesting to his companion. When she noted that they had more than 10 km to walk, he said: "What an opportunity." London has not been cowed by the attacks that have placed the city firmly on the frontline of the war on terror.
Throughout the city, pubs, cafes and, when the sun shone, beer gardens were filled with people who wanted to talk about what had happened to their home town.
Churches opened their doors to anyone who couldn't make the trek home.
Hospitals took delivery of food from neighbouring restaurants eager to ensure that neither the injured nor their relatives and friends went hungry while waiting for treatment or news. Builders downed tools to donate blood.
This palpable spirit of defiance and solidarity provided a stark contrast to Madrid which after being hit by a similar sequence of peak-time train bombings on March 11th last year - which eventually killed more than 200 people - was practically engulfed by a wave of desolation and confusion.
Madrid's devastation was the first thought that Spaniards, Alberto Sebastian and Deigo Gutierrez had when their train was halted between Paddington and Edgeware Road stations by a 9.17 am explosion that killed five people.
Holidaying in London from Santander, they were making their way to Stansted Airport to fly home. As they and their nine friends gathered at the police cordon outside Liverpool Street station, having already missed their plane, Mr Sebastian haltingly described the terror as their carriage filled with acrid black smoke.
"People had cuts on their faces and heads, blood was everywhere. Other people were helping the injured, carrying those who couldn't walk. We thought about what happened in Madrid last year," he said, his voice trailing off.
Mayor of London Ken Livingstone, who is renowned for his pacifist views, delivered a sentinel message from Singapore where he had on Wednesday celebrated a famous triumph in capturing the 2012 Olympic Games.
As the government moved towards confirming what many feared - that London had been attacked by terrorists working beneath the al Qaeda umbrella - Mr Livingstone, summed up the sentiment of many when he condemned the attacks as mass murder committed by cowards.
"I can tell you now that you will fail in your long-term objectives to destroy our free society. In the days that follow, look at our airports and seaports, and even after your cowardly attacks, you will still see people from around the world coming to London to achieve their dreams," he said.
The joy of the Olympic victory extinguished, theatre performances and summer drinks parties cancelled, Londoners began adjusting to the fact that their home, until yesterday the bastion of western liberalism, has changed forever. Security is set to become pervasive and even more intrusive.
The Evening Standard, in an editorial echoing the title of a famous 1940 American documentary on the London Blitz called London Can Take It, said the terrorists intended "to generate chaos, terror and fear.
"Our best reaction," it said, "is to try and respond with the dignity and calm that the city has always shown in the face of great adversity."