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: Hogsmill Charter Quay
Grid square: Hampton Wick, Kingston
Duration: 1:00
Recorded by: IM Rawes
Recording date: 22 October 2011
Time of day: 4.20pm
Location: By the mouth of the Hogsmill, Charter Quay, Kingston-upon-Thames.
Description: Voices and footsteps in a large courtyard lined with restaurants, clatter of cutlery, low hum of air conditioning or fume extractor units.
Technical guff: Headworn stereo. 2 x DPA2006C mics, Sound Devices MixPre-D preamp, Sony PCM M10 recorder.
Additional notes: None.
File name: Hogsmill Springfield Bridge
Grid square: Hampton Wick, Kingston
Duration: 1:00
Recorded by: IM Rawes
Recording date: 22 October 2011
Time of day: 4pm
Location: Underneath the Springfield Road bridge crossing the Hogsmill, Kingston-upon-Thames.
Description: Echoing sound of the Hogsmill flowing beneath a small bridge, a magpie chatters, distant traffic.
Technical guff: Headworn stereo. 2 x DPA2006C mics, Sound Devices MixPre-D preamp, Sony PCM M10 recorder.
Additional notes: None.
File name: TQ 1647 6930
Grid square: Hampton Wick, Kingston
Duration: 1:00
Recorded by: IM Rawes
Recording date: 28 February 2009
Time of day: 10.50am
Location: Bushy Park, just over a half a mile due west of Hampton Wick gate.
Description: Crows, magpies, ring-necked parakeets and other bridsong. Very faint traffic rumble.
Technical guff: Head-worn stereo. 2 x Shure WL-183 mics. 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.