A database of several hundred historical descriptions and references to London's sounds. They're drawn mainly from primary sources such as autobiographies, diaries and statutes, as well as novels written around the times they depict.
Sound category: Ambient > Animal- and engine-powered traffic
Title of work: Lavengro
Type of publication: Autobiography
Author: George Borrow
Year of publication: 1851
Page/volume number: Unknown
‘Oh the cracking of whips, the shouts and oaths of the carters’
Thousands of human beings were pouring over [London] bridge. But what chiefly struck my attention was a double row of carts and wagons, the generality drawn by horses as large as elephants, each row striving in a different direction, and not infrequently brought to a standstill. Oh the cracking of whips, the shouts and oaths of the carters, and the grating of wheels upon the enormous stones that formed the pavement!