As England were beating the world champions by nine wickets at Vaughan's Headingley home ground on Thursday, Londoners were coming to terms with several attacks on underground stations and an explosion on a double-decker bus that left at least 70 killed and more than 700 injured.

Now cricket's oldest rivals are set to play two more matches in the British capital over the next five days when they conclude their three-match limited-overs series with fixtures at Lord's on Sunday and The Oval on Tuesday.

And at a time when English cricket fans in particular were in danger of becoming obsessed by the forthcoming Ashes Tests, Vaughan readily admitted that runs and wickets were as nothing compared to the events in London.

"Cricket is not that important when you see those things," Vaughan insisted. "It all started early in the morning when I first arrived at the ground and saw the scenes.

"Normally we wouldn't have had the televisions on in the dressing room, but we had to keep them on because there were people that were in London that we all know.

"We haven't tried to get too involved in it, but we are trying to put things in perspective and we played a game of cricket and there are far more important things in life than cricket."

The attacks were given added poignancy coming as they did just 24 hours after many Londoners were rejoicing at the decision to award the city the 2012 Olympic Games.

"We were thrilled for London getting the Olympics just the day before and I think it's one of the best things to happen to English sport for many years," said Vaughan.

"Then we arrived at the ground to see those scenes in London and it put sport and life in general really into perspective."

And while careful not to overstress its importance to the recovery effort, Vaughan didn't shy away from the potential wider benefits of England continuing to enjoy cricket success against Ricky Ponting's tourists.

"We hoped our victory at Headingley would go just a small way towards making a few people happy," said the skipper.

"There's obviously a lot of unhappiness in London and around the country after what happened, but if our victory over Australia has made a few people happy then that's great."

Authorities at Lord's and The Oval said Friday both matches would go ahead as scheduled, albeit amidst heightened security.