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: River Lea Brimsdown
Grid square: Ponders End, North Chingford
Duration: 1:00
Recorded by: IM Rawes
Recording date: 6 January 2012
Time of day: 2.45pm
Location: Facing the Ponders End industrial estate, Brimsdown, north London.
Description: A constant hum from a factory, birdsong, occasional calls of coots, distant banging noises.
Technical guff: Headworn stereo. 2 x DPA 2006C mics, Sound Devices MixPre-D preamp, Sony PCM M10 recorder.
Additional notes: None.
File name: TQ 3627 9584
Grid square: Ponders End, North Chingford
Duration: 1:00
Recorded by: IM Rawes
Recording date: 21 April 2009
Time of day: 2.30pm
Location: On a footpath a few yards to the north-east of the roundabout marking the junction of Lea Bridge Road and Meridian Way.
Description: Heavy, ceaseless traffic, with the burr of individual motorbike engines easily distinguished above the general roar and rumble.
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.