DAY SOUND MAP | NIGHT SOUND MAP | GRID | WATERWAYS | 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: New River Enfield Town Park

Grid square: Winchmore Hill, Enfield

Duration: 1:00

Recorded by: IM Rawes

Recording date: 3 September 2011

Time of day: 6.10pm

Location: West side of Town Park, Enfield, north London.

Description: Voices of people leaving Town Park, hum of fairground ride generators, distant traffic.

Technical guff: Headworn stereo. 2 x DPA 2006C mics, Sound Devices MixPre-D preamp, Sony PCM M10 recorder.

Additional notes: None.

File name: New River Winchmore Hill

Grid square: Winchmore Hill, Enfield

Duration: 1:00

Recorded by: IM Rawes

Recording date: 3 September 2011

Time of day: 5.30pm

Location: By the Paulin cricket ground, Winchmore Hill, north London.

Description: Distant traffic, faint birdsong, voices of cricketers in the Paulin ground, the batsman hits a ball.

Technical guff: Headworn stereo. 2 x DPA 2006C mics, Sound Devices MixPre-D preamp, Sony PCM M10 recorder.

Additional notes: None.

File name: TQ 3231 9584

Grid square: Winchmore Hill, Enfield

Duration: 1:00

Recorded by: IM Rawes

Recording date: 21 April 2009

Time of day: 1.15pm

Location: A public footpath starting at Old Park Avenue and running between two golf courses in Bush Hill Park.

Description: Birdsong from the trees flanking the footpath, sounds of groundsman driving lawnmowers to tend the golf courses.

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

Additional notes: None.

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.