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: 21st floor Balfron Tower
Grid square: Mile End, Isle of Dogs, Rotherhithe
Duration: 1:00
Recorded by: IM Rawes
Recording date: 21 January 2010
Time of day: 4pm
Location: 21st floor balcony, Balfron Tower, Poplar
Description: Constant traffic noise from the Isle of Dogs to the south, a police siren, faint aircraft noise, a dog barks several times.
Technical guff: Stereo. Audio Technica BP4029 mid-side mic and Fostex FR-2LE digital recorder.
Additional notes: None.
File name: Whitechapel market
Grid square: Mile End, Rotherhithe, Isle of Dogs
Duration: 2:56
Recorded by: IM Rawes
Recording date: 2 October 2009
Time of day: 1.30pm
Location: Walking westwards through the market along Whitechapel Road, east London.
Description: Intermittent sounding of ambulance sirens, market traders' cries, recorded music from CD stalls, voices of passersby, a man sings outside a shop.
Technical guff: Head-worn stereo. Sonic Studios DSM-6S/EH mics and PA-3SX preamp, Edirol R09-HR digital recorder.
Additional notes: None.
File name: TQ 3627 8067
Grid square: Mile End, Isle of Dogs, Rotherhithe
Duration: 1:00
Recorded by: IM Rawes
Recording date: 11 July 2009
Time of day: 1.30pm
Location: OS grid reference TQ 3627 8067. The grid point is in the Thames itself. The recording point was at the mouth of Limehouse Basin, overlooking Limehouse Reach.
Description: Aircraft drone and background traffic noise, a crow caws, waves slap against wooden pier struts, a nearby coot swims in the river and calls.
Technical guff: Stereo. Audio-Technica BP4025 mic and Fostex FR-2LE 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.
