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: Regents Canal Little Venice
Grid square: Hammersmith, Shepherds Bush, Kensington
Duration: 1:00
Recorded by: IM Rawes
Recording date: 15 July 2011
Time of day: 6.15am
Location: West side of Little Venice, north of Paddington.
Description: A narrowboat's propeller churns the water as the boat makes a turn, background traffic with emergency services siren.
Technical guff: Headworn stereo. 2 x DPA 2006C mics, Sound Devices MixPre-D preamp, Sony PCM M10 recorder.
Additional notes: None.
File name: Grand Union Harrow Road
Grid square: Hammersmith, Shepherds Bush, Kensington
Duration: 1:00
Recorded by: IM Rawes
Recording date: 30 June 2011
Time of day: 2.30pm
Location: By the footbridge between Harrow Road and Kensal Road, west London.
Description: Constant traffic on Harrow Road, music from a cafe by the canal, a man talks loudly on his mobile phone, sound of hammering in the distance.
Technical guff: Headworn stereo. 2 x 2006C DPA mics, Sound Devices MixPre-D preamp, Sony PCM M10 recorder.
Additional notes: None.
File name: Grand Union Westway
Grid square: Hammersmith, Shepherds Bush, Kensington
Duration: 1:00
Recorded by: IM Rawes
Recording date: 30 June 2011
Time of day: 2.45pm
Location: Under the Westway a short distance east of the Great Western Road, west London.
Description: Constant, loud traffic from the Westway overhead, a curious hollow tone sounds briefly from 0:22, source unknown.
Technical guff: Headworn stereo. 2 x 2006C DPA mics, Sound Devices MixPre-D preamp, Sony PCM M10 recorder.
Additional notes: None.
File name: Grand Union Westbourne Green
Grid square: Hammersmith, Shepherds Bush, Kensington
Duration: 1:00
Recorded by: IM Rawes
Recording date: 30 June 2011
Time of day: 3pm
Location: By Westbourne Green Open Space, west London.
Description: Voices of children from Westbourne Open Space and of drinkers at The Waterway pub on the opposite side of the canal, birdsong, traffic passing along the Westway.
Technical guff: Headworn stereo. 2 x DPA 2006C mics, Sound Devices MixPre-D preamp, Sony PCM M10 recorder.
Additional notes: None.
File name: Pink Floyd Westfield
Grid square: Hammersmith, Shepherds Bush, Kensington
Duration: 2:35
Recorded by: Michael Gallagher
Recording date: January 2011
Time of day: Not known
Location: Westfield shopping centre, Shepherds Bush. west London.
Description: Echoing interior ambience with hubbub of shoppers' voices, Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here plays over a PA before fading out to make way for a more blandly upbeat tune.
Technical guff: Zoom H4N digital recorder.
Additional notes: Many thanks to Michael Gallagher for sharing this recording. It originally appeared on his personal blog in the post titled Wish You Were Here.
File name: Hammersmith Library
Grid square: Hammersmith, Shepherds Bush, Kensington
Duration: 2:00
Recorded by: IM Rawes
Recording date: 5 May 2010
Time of day: 4pm
Location: Hammersmith public library, Shepherd's Bush Road.
Description: Constant tapping on keyboards by visitors using the library's computers, faint voices and other sounds within the library, traffic.
Technical guff: Head-worn stereo. 2 x MM-HLSO/Sennheiser MKE-2 mics and Edirol R09-HR digital recorder.
Additional notes: None.
File name: Grand Union Canal Kensal Green
Grid square: Hammersmith, Shepherds Bush, Kensington
Duration: 1:34
Recorded by: IM Rawes
Recording date: 6 February 2010
Time of day: 1.30pm
Location: By the Grand Union Canal, opposite Kensal Green cemetery.
Description: Brief aircraft noise, birdsong from trees flanking the canal, occasional calls from ducks, distant traffic.
Technical guff: Stereo. Audio Technical BP4025 mic and Fostex FR-2LE digital recorder.
Additional notes: Thanks to Ed Lawrenson.
File name: Notting Hill pub 1984
Grid square: Hammersmith, Shepherds Bush, Kensington
Duration: 0:55
Recorded by: Cameron McNall
Recording date: August 1984
Time of day: Not known
Location: A pub near the Notting Hill Carnival area.
Description: Pub ambience with a group of men discussing buying football tickets.
Technical guff: Cameron writes: "I used a Sony WM-D6C cassette recorder with a Sony ECM-939LT condenser microphone. I digitized and expanded the track with a PEAK LE software."
Additional notes: Visit Cameron McNall's Electroland website.
File name: Portobello Road
Grid square: Hammersmith, Kensington, Shepherds Bush
Duration: 2:47
Recorded by: barredowl
Recording date: Summer 2004
Time of day: Not known
Location: Portobello Road, west London.
Description: "A walk through the Portobello Road street market in London, summer, 2004. Lots of crowd noise, a street vendor at the beginning ("'ave a look!"), a train passing overhead in the middle of the clip, and a number of people talking as they passed me. Many of them were talking Russian, for some reason. Music from a vendor's boom box in the background of the last half." – barredowl
Technical guff: Sharp MD recorder (MD-MT90) with SoundPro stereo mic.
Additional notes: Recorded by Freesound Project contributor barredowl. License: Creative Commons Sampling Plus 1.0.
File name: TQ 2439 8067
Grid square: Hammersmith, Shepherds Bush, Kensington
Duration: 1:00
Recorded by: IM Rawes
Recording date: 5 June 2009
Time of day: 3.30pm
Location: OS grid reference TQ 2439 8067. Lansdowne Road, near junction with Lansdowne Rise.
Description: A residential street of large houses. Traffic in the distance, and sounds from a building site further down the road, and a noise like brakes squealing from somewhere else. A car passes nearby along Lansdowne Rise.
Technical guff: Head-worn stereo. 2 x Shure WL-183 mics. Edirol R09-HR digital recorder.
Additional notes: None.
File name: Shepherds Bush market
Grid square: Hammersmith, Shepherds Bush, Kensington
Duration: 1:00
Recorded by: IM Rawes
Recording date: 11 February 2009
Time of day: 2.00pm
Location: Shepherds Bush market, walking due south from Uxbridge Road.
Description: Traffic sounds from Uxbridge Road recede and shoppers are heard thanking a stallholder. Electronic noises from a toy stall, a Hammersmith and City line train passes along the viaduct which bounds the west side of the market, then indistinct background sounds. A quiet day at the market.
Technical guff: Head-worn stereo. Sonic Studios DSM-6S/EH mics and PA-3SX preamp. Olympus LS-10 digital recorder.
Additional notes: None.
File name: Westfield shopping centre
Grid square: Hammersmith, Shepherds Bush, Kensington
Duration: 1:00
Recorded by: IM Rawes
Recording date: 11 February 2009
Time of day: 1:00pm
Location: Westfield shopping centre main hall, Shepherds Bush
Description: Walking through the main hall of the new Westfield shopping centre, a sentimental pop song plays over a PA and recedes, replaced by music coming from inside shop units and the voices and footsteps of shoppers.
Technical guff: Head-worn stereo. Sonic Studios DSM-6S/EH mics and PA-3SX preamp. 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.