"Mind the Gap" and sentimental attachment
 

<i>Tube bosses are bringing back the very first Mind The Gap announcement - as the widow of the man who made it misses his voice. </i>

http://1sq.me/10htGYe

Good for London Underground!

..and here it was I thought it was somebody's job to sit in a little booth and repat that announcement 20 times an hour!

How nice. My first time to London they still had the "Big Brother" male voice shouting Mind the Gap. I was very sad on my next trip to hear the very posh female voice. Not quite the same.

He always sounded a bit like the prophet of doom for me.

funny how sounds can bring back memories even more than pictures, but we rarely preserve them in the same way - this is really interesting for me as it reminds me of when i was newly married and had to travel on the Tube every day to get to bar school.

the other London sound i remember well is that of the newspaper seller who used to stand outside Temple station every night selling the Evening Standard - he had a speech impediment [or at least that's how he sounded to me] as he used to shout "Pather, late pather"- I can still hear his voice in my head.

It's like the Shipping Forecast. When delivered by the right person it's comforting.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shipping_Forecast

I agree Alan. There is a lovely rhythm to the shipping forecast which is very comforting with the right voice, but with the wrong one it just jars. I hear it when I fall asleep at night, and when I wake in the morning.

>>he used to shout "Pather, late pather"<<

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0JK1aAnlhE

>>It's like the Shipping Forecast. When delivered by the right person it's comforting.<<

I read somewhere that the lovely Charlotte Green once got a fan letter asking her to slow down towards the end of midnight bulletin, because the gentleman in question didn't want it to finish too soon.

My daughter and I LOVE the voice on the tube announcing "Piccadilly to Waterloo" - with JUST enough hesitation between each word!!! Cant wait to hear it next week!!

Aw, this made me tear up!

I am a shipping forecast junkie :)

Back in the day I used to pack a small transistor radio on every trip - so I could listen to radio 4 and the shipping forecast. I'd lay in bed and listen to Charlotte Green or whoever read it before her as they traveled clockwise around the British Isles.