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Features

Features are a new addition to the London Sound Survey, consisting of full-screen photos with the addition of bits of writing and sound recordings of atmospheres, events and interviews from London and further afield in England.

Custom House Stairs

The Tidal Thames

One of the most popular pages here is the London Waterways sound map featuring the capital's canals and lesser rivers. Now the focus is on the tidal stretch of the Thames itself, from Teddington to the sea. The new series includes the sounds of the river and the voices of some of those who live and work on it. If you've got a connection with the Thames then I'd love to hear from you. Drop me a line via the contact page.

Joist Fen, Lakenheath RSPB reserve

Lakenheath Fen nature reserve

Lakenheath Fen is an RSPB reserve in Suffolk immediately to the west of Thetford Forest. The land it occupies was once a carrot farm, and has since been carefully sculpted and cultivated into a recreation of a pre-drainage East Anglian fen. In May 2016 I spent the night there to make one recording of the dusk chorus and two of the dawn chorus.

A close-up of an instrument at the Musical Museum

Sounds of the Musical Museum

The Musical Museum in Brentford has one of the world's foremost collections of self-playing musical instruments, as well as a beautiful Wurlitzer organ. They kindly agreed to demonstrate some of the instruments one weekday afternoon and tell me more about them. This feature showcases five of them, ordered according to when they were made: the Musical Box, the Orchestra Box, the Orchestrion, the Violin Machine, and the Reproducing Piano. Together they span a century's worth of development and invention.

The Sirens of Hampton

One of the last functioning air raid sirens in or near London is at the waterworks in Hampton, where it waits just in case there’s ever a chlorine gas leakage and people have to be evacuated. Each Tuesday morning the siren is tested, so I made my way to Hurst Park on the opposite side of the Thames to record this iconic sound.

How quiet is Britain's quietest railway station?

Swing into 2016 with a trip to Shippea Hill station set in the flat, wintery bleakness of the Cambridgeshire Fens. Newspaper reports revealed that Shippea Hill had the fewest passengers of anywhere on the rail network, with a mere 22 souls getting on and off there in the previous year. But just how quiet is Britain’s quietest railway station?

Fire-bells in the City

Plans for the sounding of a full-sized air raid siren over the City of London were scuppered by complaints from killjoys, so a hand-cranked siren starts a procession of vintage fire engines through the City of London, ringing their bells as they go. The event marked the 75th anniversary of the bombing raid known as the ‘Second Great Fire of London’.