We study the distribution of the 'gap time', the first time that a large gap appears, in the spatial birth and death point process on $[0,1]$ in which particles are added uniformly in space at rate $λ$ and are removed independently at rate $1$, as a function of the parameter $λ$ and the specified gap size function $w_λ$ as $λ\to\infty$. If $w_λ$ is a large enough multiple of the typical largest gap $(\log(λ)+O(1))/λ$ and the initial distribution has a high enough local density of particles and not too many particles in total, then the gap time, scaled by its expected value, converges in distribution to exponential with mean $1$. If in addition $\limsup_λw_λ< 1$ then the expected time scales like $e^{λw_λ}/(λ^2 w_λ(1-w_λ))$.