Street life 2017

An array of daytime recordings made along street markets and other gathering-places which are pedestrianised by official design or unofficial habit. Playback of each recording is synced to a simple animation plotting the route taken.

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

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Columbia Road flower market 5:46

Map image extract © OpenStreetMap contributors, reproduced under a Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.0 license.

Time, date and weather: 11 am, Sunday 10th September 2017. Partly overcast, 16°C, wind 12 mph.

Description: Starting near the junction of Columbia Road and Ravenscroft Street. A busker sings and plays the guitar; a child screams with excitement; hubbub of voices growing louder; stallholders talk with customers and each other, and raise cries for their flowers and plants; rustle of bags and wrapping paper; the market thins out and grows quieter as the junction with Barnet Grove approaches; a car turns slowly out of Barnet Grove onto Columbia Road.

Comments: The market looks as busy and sounds as lively as when this recording was made in 2008. However, I don't remember any buskers being present back then, unlike in 2017. As well as the busker at the west end of the market, a group of four musicians were sitting around near the junction with Barnet Grove, either having finished their work or about to begin setting up.