Mind the Gap

A recent article in The Londonist makes the startling observation that "mind the gap" announcements on the Underground were once made by live people -- not by recordings, as is the case today today. 

Mind The Gap! The Forgotten Tube Pioneer, Minnie Smith

The Londonist, January 15, 2020

I find this odd. I thought everyone knew that.  During the period 1966 - 1970, Underground platform attendants (or sometimes “guards”, who rode the trains) routinely shouted out “Mind the gap” as well as “Mind the doors” when trains were discharging and taking on passengers. I know this was the case, at least during the busiest hours at big stations like Waterloo, Piccadilly and Baker Street. During those years I rode the Bakerloo and Northern lines every weekday.

I was a schoolboy then. Some 30 years later, when I returned to London after a long absence (or "gap", if you will), I found myself a middle-aged man, amazed to hear recorded voices making these same announcements.  It saddened me. A bit of my childhood had vanished forever. Mind that gap.