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.
SUB-CATEGORY | 1st to 10th |
11th to 15th |
16th to 17th |
18th | Early 19th |
Late 19th |
Early 20th |
Late 20th |
Pub life, music and song | 1 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 3 | |||
City-wide celebrations | 3 | 2 | 3 | 3 | ||||
Toasts, dinners and feasts | 2 | 1 | 1 | |||||
Theatre and cinema audiences | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||
Music and song in theatres | 2 | 2 | 2 | |||||
Public music and song outdoors | 3 | 1 | 4 | |||||
Education: Oratory and debate | 1 | |||||||
Gambling and fairs | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | |||
Sporting events | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||
Families at leisure | 1 | |||||||
Dancing | 1 | |||||||
Local celebrations | 1 | 1 |
Period referred to: 1660s
Sound category: Social > Theatre and cinema audiences
Title of work: The Diary of Samuel Pepys
Type of publication: Diary
Author: Samuel Pepys
Year of publication: 1663
Page/volume number: 1 June 1663
Crowd noises at a fencing match
[. . .] we walked away to White Hall and there took coach, and I with Sir J. Minnes to the Strand May-pole; and there 'light out of his coach, and walked to the New Theatre, which, since the King's players are gone to the Royal one, is this day begun to be employed by the fencers to play prizes at. [ . . .] But a woful rude rabble there was, and such noises, made my head ake all this evening.
Period referred to: 1660s
Sound category: Social > Theatre and cinema audiences
Title of work: The Diary of Samuel Pepys
Type of publication: Diary
Author: Samuel Pepys
Year of publication: 1661
Page/volume number: July 1661
‘The Eunuch, who was so much out that he was hissed off the stage’
To-day was acted the second part of "The Siege of Rhodes." [. . .] The King being come, the scene opened; which indeed is very fine and magnificent, and well acted, all but the Eunuch, who was so much out that he was hissed off the stage.