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: Mutton Brook Lyttleton Playing Fields
Grid square: Hampstead Heath, Highgate, Archway
Duration: 1:00
Recorded by: IM Rawes
Recording date: 3 February 2012
Time of day: 3.15pm
Location: On a footbridge by the Lyttleton Playing Fields, East Finchley.
Description: The Mutton Brook passes noisily over a rubble-filled stream bed, traffic on Lyttleton Road, a car horn beeps.
Technical guff: Headworn stereo. 2 x DPA 2006C mics, Sound Devices MixPre-D preamp, Sony PCM M10 recorder.
Additional notes: None.
File name: Mutton Brook Norrice Lea
Grid square: Hampstead Heath, Highgate, Archway
Duration: 1:00
Recorded by: IM Rawes
Recording date: 3 February 2012
Time of day: 2.45pm
Location: Norrice Lea near junction with Lyttleton Road, East Finchley.
Description: Loud traffic from Lyttleton Road, faint birdsong and trickling of the Mutton Brook, occasional sounds of a gardener at work outside a nearby house.
Technical guff: Headworn stereo. 2 x DPA 2006C mics, Sound Devices MixPre-D preamp, Sony PCM M10 recorder.
Additional notes: None.
File name: Highgate Cemetery
Grid square: Hampstead Heath, Highgate, Archway
Duration: 3:00
Recorded by: Chris/dashanna
Recording date: April 2010
Time of day: Daytime
Location: Middle of Highgate Cemetery, north London.
Description: This was recorded April 2010, during the volcano-induced no-fly-zone over Britain. There is traffic noise, but the usual frequent aeroplane noise is missing.
Technical guff: Olympus DS-50 rec order.
Additional notes: Many thanks to Chris/dashanna for sharing this via SoundCloud.
File name: TQ 2835 8826
Grid square: Hampstead Heath, Highgate, Archway
Duration: 1:00
Recorded by: IM Rawes
Recording date: 16 February 2009
Time of day: 1.40pm
Location: OS reference TQ 2835 8826. Archway Road, opposite Highgate Wood.
Description: Heavy traffic close by. During a lull between vehicles an old man can be heard shuffling past.
Technical guff: Head-worn stereo. 2 x Shure WL-183 mics. Olympus LS-10 digital recorder.
Additional notes: This recording used to set gain level for all OS reference 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.