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.
File name: Ravensbourne Catford
Grid square: Forest Hill, Catford, Ladywell
Duration: 1:00
Recorded by: Jacky Minchella
Recording date: 15 October 2009
Time of day: 4pm
Location: Under the railway bridge in Westdown Street, near Catford station, south-east London.
Description: Sound of the Ravensbourne river rushing beneath an iron cover set in the road surface. Footsteps nearby, and aeroplane drone in the background. A high-speed southbound train approaches towards the end.
Technical guff: Stereo. Audio Technica BP4025 mic and Fostex FR-2LE digital recorder.
Additional notes: None.
File name: Horniman Museum
Grid square: Forest Hill, Catford, Ladywell
Duration: 3:32
Recorded by: Dave Pape
Recording date: 3 March 2007
Time of day: Not known
Location: Horniman Museum, Forest Hill, south London.
Description: Adults' and childrens' voices echo in the African Worlds Gallery at the Horniman Museum. Faint music and recorded voices from some of the exhibition displays.
Technical guff: Binaural stereo. Soundman OKM mics, Marantz PMD-670 recorder.
Additional notes: Learn more about Dave Pape's activities at Museum of Techno.
File name: TQ 3627 7309
Grid square: Forest Hill, Catford, Ladywell
Duration: 1:00
Recorded by: IM Rawes
Recording date: 20 February 2009
Time of day: 11.45am
Location: TQ 3627 7309. Kilmorie Road.
Description: Suburban street with aircraft drone, birdsong, car doors slamming, a man coughs and walks by, indistinct speech from further away.
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.
