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 Elverson Road
Grid square: New Cross, Brockley, Lewisham
Duration: 1:00
Recorded by: IM Rawes
Recording date: 23 July 2011
Time of day: 1:10pm
Location: Near Armour Way and Elverson Road DLR station, Lewisham.
Description: Faint trickling of the Ravensbourne, clattering of wheels as a DLR train approaches and stops at Elverson Road station, faint voices, distant traffic.
Technical guff: Headworn stereo. 2 x DPA 2006C mics, Sound Devices MixPre-D preamp, Sony PCM M10 recorder.
Additional notes: None.
File name: Ravensbourne Deptford Bridge
Grid square: New Cross, Brockley, Lewisham
Duration: 1:00
Recorded by: IM Rawes
Recording date: 23 July 2011
Time of day: 12:50pm
Location: By Deptford Broadway underneath Deptford Bridge DLR station.
Description: Loud sound of traffic passing with individual vehicle engines prominent, airplane drone, grinding of wheels of a DLR train as it approaches Deptford Bridge station.
Technical guff: Headworn stereo. 2 x DPA 2006C mics, Sound Devices MixPre-D preamp, Sony PCM M10 recorder.
Additional notes: None.
File name: Ravensbourne Deptford Creek
Grid square: New Cross, Brockley, Lewisham
Duration: 1:00
Recorded by: IM Rawes
Recording date: 23 July 2011
Time of day: 12.10pm
Location: Green Quay, Deptford Creek, south-east London.
Description: Cries of gulls or terns, sound of a boat's engine on the Thames, faint footsteps and voices of passersby, a road-sweeping machine passes on the opposite side of Deptford Creek.
Technical guff: Headworn stereo. 2 x DPA 2006C mics, Sound Devices MixPre-D preamp, Sony PCM M10 recorder.
Additional notes: None.
File name: Deptford market
Grid square: New Cross, Lewisham, Brockley
Duration: 3:00
Recorded by: IM Rawes
Recording date: 19 March 2011
Time of day: 1.30pm
Location: Deptford market, south-east London.
Description: Saturday afternoon market atmosphere with music from stalls, voices of passersby and stallholders.
Technical guff: Headworn stereo. 2 x Shure WL-183 mics and Edirol R09-HR digital recorder.
Additional notes: None.
File name: Laundrette Brockley
Grid square: New Cross, Brockley, Lewisham
Duration: 2:12
Recorded by: IM Rawes
Recording date: 21 March 2010
Time of day: 2.30pm
Location: Laundrette on Brockley Road, south-east London.
Description: Three excerpts from a longer recording with sounds of washing machines, the spin dryer, and tumble dryers. Voices of staff and customers.
Technical guff: Head-worn stereo. MM-HLSO/Sennheiser MKE-2 mics and Edirol R09-HR digital recorder.
Additional notes: None.
File name: Car wash
Grid square: New Cross, Brockley, Lewisham
Duration: 2:50
Recorded by: IM Rawes
Recording date: 3 March 2010
Time of day: 3.45pm
Location: Sainsburys garage car wash, New Cross Gate.
Description: Three extracts from a longer recording of a car wash cycle made, fortunately, from inside a car.
Technical guff: Stereo. Audio Technica BP4025 mic and Fostex FR-2LE digital recorder.
Additional notes: Thanks to Ed Lawrenson.
File name: Rye Lane Peckham
Grid square: New Cross, Brockley, Lewisham
Duration: 4:42
Recorded by: IM Rawes
Recording date: May 2008
Time of day: 4.30pm
Location: Walking south along Rye Lane from Peckham Rye station.
Description: Weekday late afternoon on Rye Lane. A busker plays a guitar in the station, sounds of street cleaning vehicle, traffic, butcher's cleaver hitting a wooden block, music from shops, and passersby.
Technical guff: Head-worn stereo. Sonic Studios DSM-6S/EH and PA-3SX preamp. Olympus LS-10 digital recorder.
Additional notes: None.
File name: Greenwich foot tunnel
Grid square: New Cross, Brockley, Lewisham
Duration: 3:47
Recorded by: Matthias Kispert
Recording date: 2005
Time of day: Not known
Location: Greenwich foot tunnel, passing under the Thames between Greenwich and the Isle of Dogs.
Description: "Opened in 1902, Greenwich Foot Tunnel runs under the river Thames, connecting the Isle of Dogs with the borough of Greenwich. Its rounded diameter and tiled walls give it peculiar acoustics, which are being explored here by children imitating police sirens. Recorded for the D-Fuse project Undercurrent." – Matthias Kispert
Technical guff: Not known.
Additional notes: Recording from soundtransit.nl, covered by a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 license.
File name: TQ 3627 7688
Grid square: New Cross, Brockley, Lewisham
Duration: 1:00
Recorded by: IM Rawes
Recording date: 25 May 2009
Time of day: 2 pm
Location: OS reference 3627 7688. St James, a cul-de-sac off New Cross Road, opposite New Cross Gate station.
Description: Constant background traffic noise from New Cross Road. Sounds of people walking past the student accommodation block on St James, a car pulls up and its occupants get out and talk.
Technical guff: Head-worn stereo. 2 x Shure WL-183 mics. Edirol R09-HR 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.