Tourists and shoppers are being urged to not shy away from visiting London amid fears the Capital's economy could be impaired by yesterday's terror attacks.
Police confirmed this morning that explosions on three Tube trains and a bus at the height of the morning rush hour killed at least 50 and injured 700 people.
The incidents brought central London to a virtual standstill with many stores shutting up early leaving normally packed shopping streets eerily quiet.
Following the blasts, shares on the London Stock Exchange plummeted. At one point £50 billion was wiped off the market as the FTSE 100 index dropped by 200 points. It had, however, rallied by the end of day.
Already struggling to cope with tough trading conditions, retailers are worried consumers, fearing further attacks, will be put off from shopping in the centre of town, impacting hard on the Capital's £115 billion economy.
There are also fears foreign visitors, particularly from the US, will be discouraged from travelling to London.
American tourists account for one in five of the Capital's 13 million annual visitors, the number of which has only recently returned to pre-September 11 levels.
"We will see quite a significant impact on travel in the short term, especially from American visitors," Deloitte & Touche's Alex Kyriakidis told Bloomberg News.
"It took about 18 months for New York hotel occupancies to come back to pre-September 11 levels."
Economic analysts believe the Monetary Policy Committee, which left interest rates on hold at 4.75% yesterday, will be forced to cut them in August in an attempt to restore consumer confidence.
Amid the fears, however, several organisations are calling on people to continue visiting London and defy the bombers.
Jean-Claude Baumgarten, president of the World Travel & Tourism Council, said: "Now, more than ever, people should keep their travel plans and take the opportunity to visit family, friends and new places all over the world.
"Not doing this would be to play into the hands of the terrorists."
Michael Savoy, the lord mayor of London, added: "London, and the Square Mile at its heart, has already shown that crucial business and financial operations are fully resilient. Despite the attack on Thursday most workers were in their offices on Friday.
"I am sure that on Monday at 7.00am the City will be humming as usual to prove that Londoners just get on with it. That's our best answer to terrorist bullies."
Officials hoping that the London economy will cope with the aftermath of the attacks will be cheered by the fact that Spain's tourism industry picked up soon after terrorist bombs in Madrid in March 2004.