DAY SOUND MAP | NIGHT SOUND MAP | GRID | ESTUARY

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: TQ 4023 7688

Grid square: Greenwich, Chalton, Blackheath

Duration: 1:00

Recorded by: IM Rawes

Recording date: 25 May 2009

Time of day: 1:15pm

Location: OS reference TQ 4023 7688. Shooters Hill Road, near junction with Prince of Wales Road.

Description: Constant traffic noise from Shooters Hill Road, around 15 yards north of the recording point. Individual cars occasionally pass closer by along St German's Place, which runs alongside Shooters Hill Road, separated by a narrow grassy strip.

Technical guff: Head-worn stereo. 2 x Shure WL-183 mics. Edirol R09-HR digital recorder.

Additional notes: None.

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ABOUT SOUND MAP RECORDINGS

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.