Mind the gap

Mind the gap - to German: Pay attention to the gap - the wording is a safety warning to hear especially at the stations of the London Underground's ( and see ) is. The announcement that the train passengers to warn of the gap between the platform and the doorsteps of the web is brought worldwide in conjunction with the London Underground. It was introduced in 1969, Premiere was at the station Embankment. Meanwhile, the imperative has experienced a mass distribution. It is found today among other things, a variety of t - shirts and souvenirs, mostly together with the symbol of Transport for London, often it is also related to other things, completely verselbständigtem context.

The London Underground and the gap

Especially the appropriate precaution in the older sections of the London Underground appears. Follow exactly the course of the past on them streets, so that the station platforms are partially in gentle curves. There, when stopping a train, hazardous gaps between it and the curved platform. In the absence of devices for bridging the gap, as there are for example, in some stations of the New York City Subway, was made until today the warning in written and to be careful on the dangerous gap in order not hineinzustürzen. It is carried out by greeting when entering a train ( inside the train at some length: "Please mind the gap in between the train and the platform" ) as well as in the form of an inscription at the platform edge. It will also warned of the routes where the platform height can not be optimally adapted to the rolling stock. So have on the Piccadilly Line and use the District Line vehicles with varying floor height ( tube trains and large profile ) some stations together. There, the platform height is a compromise between the different needs.

In the supra-regional South West Trains is the admonition: "Please mind the gap in between the train and the platform edge. "

The announcement and the Announcer

The announcement " Mind the gap " in 1969 automated, as it had proved for drivers and platform staff to be difficult to repeat the warning when entering a train several times. For recording chose the London Underground at the time very advanced digital solid-state technology. The first announcement systems were supplied by Telefunken. Since space was still expensive, had the warning be short for this reason. So it could be easier to use as a label.

The announcement was first spoken by Peter Lodge. She was indeed originally made with an actor, but he had asked for any reproduction fee. So had to London Underground to professional waive and looked for a suitable employees. As a sound engineer Peter Lodge, who was to conduct the recording technically, waiting for the man, he spoke for the sound check a " Mind the gap " on tape. London Underground was enough to do exactly.

For decades, Peter Lodges voice familiar to metro users. About the time you placed them on the various lines also have other speakers one. However, at the turn of the millennium began gradually to replace the announcement. In 1999, the voice actress Emma Clarke was hired for this purpose and for other automatic messages. In 2007, however, London Underground dismissed the young woman again, as they had published on its website parodies of subway announcements. As a passenger was asked not to do so, as he was reading newspaper while in reality he was on the women's breasts rigid ( " you dirty pervert " ), for example, in a clip. In addition, Clarke had told that they no longer take the Underground, because she was " terrible".

The announcers whose voices were taken out of circulation, also included Oswald Laurence. He was heard for several years on the Northern Line, until he in 2012 by the last station - Embankment - fell silent. In March 2013 it was announced that the actor 's widow appealed with a letter to the London Underground and the loss of her voice died in 2001 at the age of 80 years, her husband had complained. She wrote every day she went to the Embankment to hear his announcement. Mark Mason, author of Walk the Lines: The London Underground, Overground was reported: "Murder, She him, Mind the gap ' could say they thought,' Thank you, darling, I will. '" The metro company insured to want to use the voice of Laurence at the station again.

" Mind the gap " with other light rail systems in the world

• The U -Bahn Berlin makes specially curved along some stretches of line 2 in the train in German and in English the announcement " Please note when getting the gap between train and platform edge! - Please mind the gap in between platform and train! ". This display is done on the digital train destination indicators on the platforms.
• In Hamburg, from the S -Bahn to the station Berliner Tor with yellow Biltzlichtern and the message: " Please note the gap between train and platform edge! " Warned.
• The French " Attention à la marche en descendant du train " (be careful on the step when leaving the train! ) In some stations of the Paris Métro is to be considered in a broader sense as a variant.
• In the Prague metro is the announcement for 30 years " Ukončete prosím výstup a Nastup, dveře se zavírají " ( Please finish the training and boarding. Close the doors ). It is for Prague have become so characteristic as " Mind the gap " for London.
• In Singapore (MRT ) there are they than English in Mandarin, Tamil and Malay.
• In the Delhi Metro it sounds in English and Hindi.
• At the station Monastiraki Athens Metro is in Greek means - here the subsequent English translation: " Mind the gap in between the train and the platform. "
• Since 2011, the Vienna Metro warns at individual stations: " Please note in the interest of your own safety, that after the clearance of the train with the words, lagging, please add this in and out is forbidden and pay attention to the gap between platform and subway door. "

" Mind the gap " in a different context

The call Mind the gap has now developed into a household word from the safety warning. It is used in many other contexts, more or less distant:

Mind the Gap is the title of a music album by the band Scooter ( on the cover he appears as a tunnel label into a German U - Bahnhof) from a published 2010 adventure novel by Michael Engler ( which addresses in a disused London Underground station ) and a film 2004 by Eric Schaeffer. Under the heading of cultural events are also repeatedly carried out, in Kassel, an open- air festival of Indiependent and alternative scene or from the Centre for Art and Media, an opinion based on the concept of space theater symposium.

The announcement serves as a rallying cry to generally highlight the gap between men and women in terms of their social position and to observe any differences beyond this opposition (see the emblem of London Student Feminists ) or, for example, to claim the women's quota in various professional sectors in the concrete, such as in science.

" Mind the gap " was the name of a campaign, with the students in December 2010 demanded by the British government, that students who have a " gap year ", one year pause, inserted, would be exempted from the increase in tuition fees in September 2012.

The term is used in many video games, including Portal, Halo and Armadillo Run, usually in an ironic context.