Select a place by clicking on either a yellow spot below or its name from the list further down.
Brick Lane and Sclater Street • Brixton Station Road and Electric Avenue • Broadway, Bexleyheath • Bromley High Street • Cathedral Walk, Victoria • Chapel Market, Islington • Church Street Market • Clarence Street, Kingston • Columbia Road flower market • Covent Garden • Deptford Market • East Street, Barking • East Street, Walworth • Gerrard Street, Chinatown • Greens End and Powis Street, Woolwich • Hounslow High Street • Ilford High Road • Kings Cross • Kingston Market and Memorial Square • Leicester Square • Lewisham Market • Neal Street • North End and Surrey Street, Croydon • Palace Gardens, Enfield • Petticoat Lane • Portobello Road • Queen's Market, Upton Park • Ridley Road, Dalston • Roman Road Market • Romford Market and South Street • Shepherds Bush Market • Stratford station and Westfield approach • Sutton High Street • The Broadway, Stratford • Uxbridge High Street • Walthamstow Market • Wembley Central • Wembley Park • Westfield Shepherds Bush • Whitechapel Market • Whitecross Street
About the project
This is a collection of recordings I'm making in the latter half of 2017. They feature the daytime atmospheres of those markets, squares and pedestrianised streets which people tend to treat as destinations in their own right, instead of just a means to get from Archway to Balham. To be included, a place has to be in a built-up area, mostly or entirely open to the sky (which usually rules out shopping centres), and where driving a vehicle isn't allowed by design or decree, or else is made predictably very difficult by the volume of pedestrians.
Street life depends on social interaction, whether it's between friends, family members, acquaintances, buyers and sellers, or strangers. Self-absorbed activities like solitary jogging don't count. There must be an interest in the presence of others, even if it may not always be a benign interest.
At the time of writing (12 September) there are more places lined up which you can't yet see on the map. They include parts of Bromley, Brixton, Whitechapel and elsewhere. But I don't know every corner of London, so if you've a good suggestion for somewhere to record, then drop me a line through this site's contact email or my Twitter account @LondonSounds.