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The London Sound Survey collects the sounds of everyday public life throughout London and compiles past accounts to show how the sound environment has changed. This page explains more about the site's purpose and provides its email contact address.
I hope you enjoy listening to these field recordings made in and around London, and find interest in the historical accounts of how the city sounded in past times. If this website helps encourage someone to make field recordings or start a line of research of their own, that'd be even better. Drop me a line if you do.
Amongst the daily urban hubbub there's information about who lives here, what they get up to, how they enjoy themselves and what they believe in. Sounds come in fashions from singing canaries and windchimes to car horns that play Old Dixie. They announce developments in technology, the city's growth, and social and demographic change. They tell us of shifts in the make-up and scattering of London's wildlife.
Stereo sound recording and playback was the first immersive electronic medium and it's still the most widespread and practical one. Listening to a recording of the sounds of a place or event gets the imagination working and recreates some of the sense of being there. It feels like a worthwhile end in itself simply to share those experiences with whoever's willing to listen.
The London Sound Survey is a hobby which I fund out of my own pocket. It's time-consuming but it doesn't cost all that much to run. I hope the results will eventually be archived in a durable form so that someone decades hence might make use of them.
To that future listener, greetings.
I hold copyright over all the recordings on the London Sound Survey except where stated otherwise.
I. M. Rawes, London
That concludes the London Sound Survey About page.
Home page. Sound actions. Sound maps. Wildlife.
Home page. London map. Sound actions. Sound maps. Wildlife. Historical. Blog. About. Say hello.
The London Sound Survey 2018. I. M. Rawes holds copyright over all recordings and other site content except where stated otherwise.