Connecting the crowd and crowds at Grenfell Tower

A day of contrasts on my second visit to London Natural History Museum this week, today for the Connecting with the Crowd Conference. Arriving at the NHM just after nine in the morning on an already glorious sunny day, I could feel the pull of Grenfell tower's location, North West. London life was bustling on Gloucester Road and the tourists were gathering and chatting on benches and the pavement, waiting for the Museum to open. I walked up beyond Imperial College, before coming back to enter the Museum for the conference.

The growing babble of conversation as people arrived for registration, handing in my memory stick with the PowerPoint presentation, tea and a biscuit or two, redirected my attention to the here and now. This was followed by a full program of 20 minute and 5 minute talks. Speakers were diverse, from Professor Chris Lintott talking on the success and lessons from Zooniverse, Dr Visotheary Ung from the Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris on The Herbonautes and the NHM's own Ali Thomas introducing us to Visiteering

I struggled to keep up with making notes, grew hoarse at lunchtime in conversations shouted over the animated discussions and then had to drink tea and suck sugar cubes in the hopes that I would still have a voice for my 5 minute slot right at the end of the general sessions of the day. I remember the audience laughing in the right places but otherwise adrenaline amnesia struck after my talk - I'll have to wait and see the YouTube releases of the conference videos.

The closing keynote speech was by Professor Dan Rubenstein of Princeton University, on 'Power to the People: Nature and science benefit when people are engaged'. A really inspiring demonstration on how investment and engagement with communities in Kenya led to the local people taking on the responsibility of counting endangered Grevy's Zebras and then changing their grazing strategies to allow both wildlife and livestock to benefit. In the Q&A, I asked whether there would be a negative effect due to President Trump's less generous attitude to science. Apparently, for the conservation projects Dan was involved in, this was less likely as funding for the work came from zoos and individual states, rather than federal funding.

Overall message from the meeting was that Science is not just for the academics. Reaching out and treating volunteers in crowdsourcing science projects as collaborators in science was enriching. Good programs attracted volunteers and allowed them to communicate, think and contribute new ideas, irrespective of their background or education.

I left buoyed by by new insights, useful tips and a new contact or two to follow up.

As I emerged from the closing NHM around 6 pm, my thoughts returned to the draw of the Grenfell Tower. Checking Google Maps, I used a Boris Bike for the first time to cycle there. The journey started through the leafy Kensington Gardens where the numerous pedestrians had priority. Families, couples, young and old were enjoying the later afternoon sun, walking, talking and congregating around the occasional ice-cream van.

I resisted the soft-ice temptation and pedaled out onto the Bayswater Road, past Notting Hill, amongst the late commuter traffic. Then downhill until I turned right onto Portland Road. The traffic stress gave way to more residential streets. Increasingly people were out walking, in a variety of clothes from bright African cloths to the more demure headscarves and loose dark dresses. I arrived at the entrance to the Bonmore Road, leading to Grenfell Road, which was blocked off by the police and sporting a collection of police vans. By now, there was a general drift of people, couples or threes and fours, past the road block. I continued up Walmer Road. The gentle stream of people went onto footpaths, so I dismounted and followed, passing a granddad playing with his grandchild on a bank in the sun, as the mother came out of the front door to check everything was alright. 

I emerged on Lancaster Road, with the burnt out Grenfell Tower looming beyond a blue tiled building. Staying a bit further back, near the Notting Hill Methodist Church, it was eerie watching the small loose crowd of several hundred that faced the tower. People came in on one side, would linger and talk in hushed tones. Some stayed whilst others then walked on to their local destination, but the crowd stayed the same, or was it growing imperceptibly? The light sussuration of the crowd was broken when suddenly there was a spate of excited barking coming from the tower in the distance, Conversation stopped. Then it went quiet again and people resumed talking. I turned and chatted to a young man who had also been drawn to the tower. After five or ten minutes, we shook hands on our shared feeling of mortality and fate, and I set off in the direction of Kings Cross and home. The mental weight of the Tower's presence growing fainter with distance and increasing traffic.

Back home, on the late news, I discovered that I must have been perhaps a half hour ahead of the raucous demonstrations in  Kensington Town Hall and the angry march along Kensington High Street towards the tower. The Royals had visited survivors and helpers much earlier in the day, at the Westway Sports Centre, a quarter of a mile away.