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: Greenwich Foot Tunnel
Grid square: Greenwich, Chalton, Blackheath
Duration: 4:12
Recorded by: Matthew 'Wills' Williams
Recording date: 2 September 2011
Time of day: 5.30pm
Location: Greenwich foot tunnel, southeast London.
Description: Echoing voices of adults and children speaking in English and German, footsteps and brief whistling as pedestrians walk along the Greenwich Foot Tunnel under the Thames.
Technical guff: Stereo. Zoom H4n recorder, internal mics.
Additional notes: Many thanks to Matthew 'Wills' Williams for sharing this recording with the London Sound Survey. See Matthew's professional sound design resume on IMDb here.
File name: River Quaggy Weigall Road
Grid square: Greenwich, Chalton, Blackheath
Duration: 1:00
Recorded by: IM Rawes
Recording date: 5 November 2011
Time of day: 2.50pm
Location: Weigall Road, Blackheath Park.
Description: Distant traffic, trickling of the Quaggy as it passes beneath Weigall Road, faint music and voices of football players, a car drives past.
Technical guff: Headworn stereo. 2 x DPA 2006C mics, Sound Devices MixPre-D preamp, Sony PCM M10 recorder.
Additional notes: None.
File name: Greenwich Park in the snow
Grid square: Greenwich, Chalton, Blackheath
Duration: 1:37
Recorded by: IM Rawes
Recording date: 18 December 2010
Time of day: 4.30pm
Location: North side of Greenwich Park.
Description: Yells of children and adults riding toboggans downhill from the Royal Observatory.
Technical guff: Head-worn stereo. 2 x Shure WL-183 mics and Edirol R09-HR digital recorder.
Additional notes: None.
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.
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.