John Bull (@garius) posted a great story on Twitter, about one of the announcements at Embankment tube station, and a voice that suddenly went unheard.
It is election season. The world is busy and rubbish.
But it is also Christmas.
So take a breather and let me tell you a story about London, trains, love and loss, and how small acts of kindness matter.
I’m going to tell you about the voice at Embankment Tube station.
— John Bull (@garius) 11 December 2019
Just before Christmas 2012, staff at Embankment Tube station were approached by a woman who was very upset.
She kept asking them where the voice had gone. They weren’t sure what she meant.
The Voice?
The voice, she said. The man who says ‘Mind the Gap’
— John Bull (@garius) 11 December 2019
Don’t worry, the staff at Embankment said. The announcement still happens, but they’ve all been updated. New digital system. New voices. More variety.
The staff asked her if she was okay.
“That voice,” she explained, “was my husband.”
— John Bull (@garius) 11 December 2019
The woman, a GP called Dr Margaret McCollum, explained that her husband was an actor called Oswald Laurence. Oswald had never become famous, but he HAD been the chap who had recorded all the Northern Line announcements back in the seventies.
And Oswald had died in 2007.
— John Bull (@garius) 11 December 2019
Oswald’s death had left a hole in Margaret’s heart. But one thing had helped. Every day, on her way to work, she got to hear his voice.
Sometimes, when it hurt too much, she explained, she’d just sit on the platform at Embankment and listen to the announcements for a bit longer.
— John Bull (@garius) 11 December 2019
For five years, this had become her routine. She knew he wasn’t really there but his voice – the memory of him – was.
To everyone else, it had just been another announcement. To HER it had been the ghost of the man she still loved.
And now even that had gone.
— John Bull (@garius) 11 December 2019
The staff at Embankment were apologetic, but the whole Underground had this new digital system, it just had to be done. They promised, though, that if the old recordings existed, they’d try and find a copy for her.
Margaret knew this was unlikely, but thanked them anyway.
— John Bull (@garius) 11 December 2019
In the New Year, Margaret McCollum sat on Embankment Station, on her way to work.
And over the speakers she heard a familiar voice. The voice of a man she had loved so much, and never thought she’d hear again.
“Mind the Gap” Said Oswald Laurence.
— John Bull (@garius) 11 December 2019
Because it turned out a LOT of people at Embankment, within London Underground, within @TfL and beyond had lost loved ones and wished they could hear them again.
And they’d all realised that with luck, just this once, for one person, they might be able to make that happen.
— John Bull (@garius) 11 December 2019
Archives were searched, old tapes found and restored. More people had worked to digitize them. Others had waded through the code of the announcement system to alter it while still more had sorted out the paperwork and got exemptions.
And together they made Oswald talk again.
— John Bull (@garius) 11 December 2019
And that is why today, even in 2019, if you go down to Embankment station in London, and sit on the northbound platform on Northern Line, you will here a COMPLETELY different voice say Mind the Gap to ANYWHERE else on the Underground.
It’s Oswald.
Merry Christmas everyone.
— John Bull (@garius) 11 December 2019
When I started to read this story, I was thinking that maybe the archived recording would be found and then a copy sent to Dr McCollum. I never expected the voice to be digitised, restored, and then put back in use.
The fact that it’s only used in the Embankment tube station on the Northern Line makes it even better. It’s amazing that people went the extra mile and put in the work to make it happen.