DAY SOUND MAP | NIGHT SOUND MAP | GRID

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: TQ 4023 9205

Grid square: Hale End, Woodford

Duration: 1:00

Recorded by: IM Rawes

Recording date: 24 January 2010

Time of day: 1.30pm

Location: On Woodford Green, near Snakes Lane West.

Description: Loud sound of traffic from the nearby main road, occasional birdsong, faint sounds of dog-walkers passing by, aeroplane noise.

Technical guff: Stereo. Audio Technica BP4025 mic and Fostex FR-2LE digital recorder.

Additional notes: None.

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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.