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.
| 1 | 3 | 4 | ||||||||||||
| 2 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 2 | ||||||||||
| 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 5 | 2 | 5 | 7 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | ||
| 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 4 | 12 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | |
| 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 6 | 1 | 22 | 17 | 15 | 9 | 5 | 1 | 5 | ||
| 1 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 5 | 16 | 28 | 31 | 17 | 9 | 4 | 3 | 2 | ||
| 1 | 1 | 2 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 10 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 4 | ||
| 1 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 8 | 3 | 1 | 9 | 7 | 1 | 1 | ||||
| 3 | 4 | 3 | 7 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 2 | |||||||
| 6 | 1 | 8 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | |||||||
| 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||
| 1 | 1 |
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: New River Hoe Lane
Duration: 1:00
Grid square: Crows Hill, Clay Hill
Recorded by: IM Rawes
Recording date: 3 September 2011
Time of day: 7pm
Location: By Hoe Lane, near Forty Hill, north London.
Description: Magpies chatter in trees close by, indistinct voices of passersby on Hoe Lane, traffic, airplane drone towards end.
Technical guff: Headworn stereo. 2 x DPA 2006C mics, Sound Devices MixPre-D preamp, Sony PCM M10 recorder.
Additional notes: None.
Filename: TQ 3231 9963
Duration: 1:00
Grid square: Crews Hill, Clay Hill
Recorded by: IM Rawes
Recording date: 17 January 2010
Time of day: 12 noon
Location: TQ 3231 9963. Middle of Whitewebbs Wood, Crews Hill.
Description: Constant traffic noise from Whitrwebbs Road and the M25 to the north. Birdsong, voices of dog walkers, aircraft drone towards the end.
Technical guff: Stereo. Audio Technica BP4025 mic and Fostex FR-2LE digital recorder.
Additional notes: None.
Filename: Whitewebbs brook
Duration: 1:00
Grid square: Crews Hill, Clay Hill
Recorded by: IM Rawes
Recording date: 17 January 2010
Time of day: 12.30pm
Location: Whitewebbs Wood, Crews Hill.
Description: Recorded while kneeling beside a small brook in Whitewebbs Wood, The brook was swollen by recent rain.
Technical guff: Stereo. Audio Technica BP4025 mic and Fostex FR-2LE 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.