The "Gorgeous Voice" Behind "Mind the Gap"
Not long ago, I was waiting for the a Northern Line train at Embankment Station in London when I heard something that caught my attention.
“That voice is different,” I said.
It was the “Mind the Gap” announcement that can be heard as the train arrives at the platform in certain London underground stations1.
I remember how funny I thought that phrase was when I heard it during my first visit to London 25+ years ago.
Mind the gap?
I quickly learned this was a fancy way of saying, Watch your step, as there was a gap between the train and the platform.
Those Brits — they’re so fancy!
But where did these “Mind the Gap” announcements come from – and was the voice at Embankment Station different?
I was curious…
The “Mind the Gap” announcement was introduced on the London Underground in 1969.
An actor was originally hired to record the message, but when he expected royalties for the job, Sound Engineer Peter Lodge recorded a version that was used instead.
And over the years, different recordings have been used in different stations.
Actor Tim Bentinck, best known for playing David Archer in BBC Radio 4’s series, The Archers, could be heard on the Piccadilly line between 1990 and 2006.
His announcement was later replaced by voice actor Phil Sayer, whose voice could also be heard on the busy Jubilee and Northern lines.
“He had an R.P. voice,” his widow Elinor Hamilton said, “but it was not posh.”
[R.P. – or Received Pronunciation – is a standard accent of spoken British English. It’s often associated with educated speakers and formal speech.]
I probably heard voiceover artist Emma Clarke’s announcements when I visited London in the early 2000s.
Her voice was used on the London Underground for eight years – until she posted a series of “mock announcements” online.
These announcements included:
“We would like to remind our American tourist friends that you are almost certainly talking too loudly.”2
“Would the passenger in the red shirt pretending to read the paper but who is actually staring at that woman’s chest, please stop. You are not fooling anyone, you filthy pervert.”
“Here we are crammed again into a sweaty Tube carriage ... If you’re female smile at the bloke next to you and make his day. He’s probably not had sex for months.”
She does have a lovely voice. You can hear for yourself:
Though Clarke said her mock announcements were “just a bit of a laugh,” her bosses at Transport for London (TFL) failed to see the humor — and removed her voice from London Underground stations in 2007.
But they had a little fun sharing the news.
A TFL spokesman said at the time:
“London Underground is sorry to have to announce that further contracts for Miss Clarke are experiencing severe delays.”
But what about that voice I was hearing at Embankment Station?
That voice belonged to an actor named Oswald Laurence.
Laurence was a theatre actor born in Hamburg, Germany in 1929.
He made the “Mind the Gap” recordings for the Northern line in the late 1960s or early 1970s.
And his announcement could still be heard on the Northern line at Embankment Station when he passed away in 2007.
Devastated by the loss of her husband, Oswald’s widow, Dr. Margaret McCollum, would often travel to Embankment station just to hear his voice.
“He was never very far away in my head and in my heart,” she told the Daily Mail in 2013.
“And knowing that I could go and listen to his voice was simply wonderful. It was a great comfort.
“If I had a journey that could possibly go via Embankment, I would go that way.
“I would go and sit on the platform, and sometimes miss a couple of trains just so I could hear it.
“I just loved hearing his voice.
And that’s what Dr. McCollum did for years — until one day in November 2012 — when she heard a different voice in the station.
She enquired with TFL staff at Embankment, and was told the station’s PA system had been digitalized — and Oswald’s “gorgeous voice” had been removed.
“I was horrified,” she told the BBC in 2013.
“I was completely, utterly devastated.
“That might sound ridiculous, but I thought I had to do something about this.”
So, she wrote a letter to TFL, asking if they could help her obtain a copy of her husband’s announcement.
TFL were touched by Margaret’s story, and staff tracked down the recording, and kindly arranged a CD of the recording for her.
But that wasn’t all…
Margaret’s letter must have been pretty moving.
Because in March 2013, TFL brought Oswald’s voice back to the northbound Northern Line at Embankment Station – where it can still be heard today.
Another story that shows the power of the pen!
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-Beth
The underground is also known as the “tube.”
This is a fair point (and I say that as an American)
Hi Beth, thanks for writing about me! I'm still one of the voices on London Underground and can still be heard inside trains. I was not "sacked" by London Underground. I've spoken about this a lot in interviews on live radio and TV...not so easy to be misquoted that way! Hope that clarifies. :)
Thank you so much for this story! As you know, I spent so much time in the UK 🇬🇧 and “Mind the Gap” became part of my vocabulary. In fact, I think I have a framed picture of that phrase, I just need to find it after our recent move. What a lovely piece of history that you shared ❤️👍