A database of several hundred historical descriptions and references to London's sounds. They're drawn mainly from primary sources such as autobiographies, diaries and statutes, as well as novels written around the times they depict.
| SUB-CATEGORY | 1st to 10th |
11th to 15th |
16th to 17th |
18th | Early 19th |
Late 19th |
Early 20th |
Late 20th |
| Coronations | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | |||
| Ritual openings of public events | 1 | 1 | ||||||
| Victory parades and celebrations | 1 | |||||||
| Regular rituals of court and state | 1 | 1 | 1 |
Period referred to: 1830s
Sound category: Ceremonial > Ritual openings of events
Title of work: John O'London
Type of publication: Magazine
Author: Not known
Year of publication: 1837
Page/volume number: 14 December 1837
Opening of the London to Deptford Railway
The directors having arrived at the London terminus were shown to their seats by ushers in waiting, and the band of music having taken up its positions on the roof of the carriage, the official bugler blew the signal for the start, and the train steamed off amidst the firing of cannon, the ringing of church bells, and the cheers of an excited crowd.
Period referred to: 1660s
Sound category: Ceremonial > Ritual openings of public events
Title of work: The Diary of Samuel Pepys
Type of publication: Diary
Author: Samuel Pepys
Year of publication: 1663
Page/volume number: 25 August 1663
‘I met a fine fellow with trumpets before him in Leadenhall-street’
This noon going to the Exchange, I met a fine fellow with trumpets before him in Leadenhall-street, and upon enquiry I find that he is the clerk of the City Market; and three or four men carried each of them an arrow of a pound weight in their hands. It seems this Lord Mayor begins again an old custome, that upon the three first days of Bartholomew Fayre, the first, there is a match of wrestling, which was done, and the Lord Mayor there and Aldermen in Moorefields yesterday: to-day, shooting: and to-morrow, hunting. And this officer of course is to perform this ceremony of riding through the city, I think to proclaim or challenge any to shoot. It seems that the people of the fayre cry out upon it as a great hindrance to them.