Recordings of background atmospheres and incidental noises from all over London. Many form part of a sound grid series recorded at evenly-spaced points across the city, each marking the centre of a square on the map below.
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Above: graphic based on a daytime satellite image courtesy of the Image Science and Analysis Laboratory, NASA Johnson Space Center. Each red grid square is 2.5 miles or 4 kilometers across.
Filename: Broadway indoor market Tooting
Duration: 2:00
Grid square: Balham, Streatham, Tooting
Recorded by: IM Rawes
Recording date: 22 January 2011
Time of day: 3pm
Location: Tooting High Street, south London.
Description: Walking through the Broadway indoor market: stallholders' voices, recorded music, footsteps, chirping of finches in cages towards the end.
Technical guff: Headworn stereo. 2 x Shure WL-183 mics and Edirol R09-HR recorder.
Additional notes: None.
Filename: Sewer Clapham Common
Duration: 1:06
Grid square: Balham. Streatham, Tooting
Recorded by: Jonathan Prior
Recording date: 1 September 2010
Time of day: Not known
Location: Clapham Common south side.
Description: Sound of sewer and road traffic, recorded from inside sewer through open manhole cover.
Technical guff: Stereo. Zoom H4 recorder, internal mics.
Additional notes: Many thanks to Jonathan Prior for sharing this recording, which appears as part of the sound map on his website 12 Gates to the City.
Filename: TQ 2835 7309
Duration: 1:00
Grid square: Balham, Streatham, Tooting
Recorded by: IM Rawes
Recording date: 19 February
Time of day: 4.20pm
Location: TQ 2835 7309. Junction of Balham Park Road and Balham High Street.
Description: Loud traffic noise from Balham High Street, vehicles passing close by, music plays from a car.
Technical guff: Head-worn stereo. 2 x Shure WL-183 mics. Olympus LS-10 digital recorder.
Additional notes: None.
Sound map recordings fall into two kinds, shown by the filenames they're given.
A sound grid recording has a filename beginning with the letters 'TQ', followed by eight digits. These are the Ordnance Survey co-ordinates for where the recording ought to be made. Each is part of a regularly-spaced series of recordings covering London. More about them, including graphics showing the resulting city-wide patterns of sounds, can be found on this page.
Other recordings have more descriptive filenames and these are simply of curious or distinctive sounds heard in different places.