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: Summer wind Tottenham Marshes
Grid square: South Chingford, Higham
Duration: 1:36
Recorded by: IM Rawes
Recording date: 21 July 2010
Time of day: 6.30pm
Location: Tottenham Marshes, north-east London.
Description: Grasshoppers rasp in tall grass around, sound of a blustery late afternoon wind, distant traffic.
Technical guff: Stereo. Audio Technica BP4029 mid-side mic and Fostex FR-2LE digital recorder.
Additional notes: None.
File name: Under Watermead Way
Grid square: South Chingford, Higham
Duration: 1:00
Recorded by: IM Rawes
Recording date: 18 July 2010
Time of day: 11am
Location: In a rubbish-strewn space beneath Watermead Way dual carriageway, north-east London.
Description: Traffic noise, occasional thumps as vehicles pass overhead along Watermead Way. Pigeons roosting on ledges coo and flap their wings.
Technical guff: Stereo. Audio Technica BP4025 mic and Fostex FR-2LE digital recorder.
Additional notes: None.
File name: Stonebridge Lock
Grid square: South Chingford, Higham
Duration: 1:00
Recorded by: IM Rawes
Recording date: 18 July 2010
Time of day: 4pm
Location: Stonebridge Lock on the River Lea, at Tottenham Marshes, north-east London.
Description: Loud, discordant squealing as a barge-owner operates the winding gear on Stonebridge Lock. Voices of onlookers, distant traffic.
Technical guff: Stereo. Audio Technica BP4029 mid-side mic and Fostex FR-2LE digital recorder.
Additional notes: None.
File name: TQ 3627 9205
Grid square: South Chingford, Higham
Duration: 1:00
Recorded by: IM Rawes
Recording date: 20 March 2009
Time of day: 5.40pm
Location: OS reference TQ 3627 9205. A track running north from Harbet Road, alongside the River Lea aquaduct.
Description: Recording made under a tree, its trunk used as a wind-break. Constant mass traffic noise from the North Circular junction with Hall Lane. A bird cries briefly and the breeze rustles leaf litter on the ground.
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.
