London life in sound
Welcome to the London Sound Survey, a growing collection of Creative Commons-licensed sound recordings of people, places and events in the capital. Historical references too are gathered to find out how London's sounds have changed.
Over 1,500 bizarre, odd, obscure, funny, sonorous and sometimes worrying sound-related terms collected from Victorian dialect surveys and many other old sources from across the English-speaking world. Copiously illustrated throughout, this makes an ideal gift for word-lovers and sound-lovers alike. Read more, examine an extract and order your copy on this page.
NEW STREET CRIES OF OLD PEKING
Paintings of street sellers and descriptions of their cries and jingles from Samuel Victor Constant's Calls, Sounds and Merchandise of the Peking Street Peddlers, written in 1936 and published in China by the Camel Bell Press. This rare book provides a unique insight into the sounds of pre-industrial urban life.Go there »
LONDON UNSEEN
A new series of sound graphics featuring field recordings from anonymised London districts, with the only clues being the distances between recording points given as walking times and the sounds themselves. Do you know London well enough to guess where these places might be? Go there »
ANDRE'S LONDON
Hear the city's busy thoroughfares and quieter corners through the ears (and Jecklin disc stereo array) of musician and recordist Andre Louis. His thoughts on why he records are rendered in braille to form the basis for a new London sound graphic. Go there »
THE HACKNEY YEAR
A hundred recordings of birdsong and city ambience captured by wide-awake wildlife recordist Richard Beard in a back garden in Hackney, north-east London. Part of a series made each morning around 6.30am between March 2012 and March 2013. Go there »
12 TONES OF LONDON
London's geography and demographics explored by using statistics to sort 2011 Census data into clusters. 12 archetypal council wards are then selected to record sound profiles which, touch wood, can be generalised across much of the city. The first part of the new Projects section. Go there »
RADIO ACTUALITY
The sounds of London events and street life from the 1920s to the 1950s in old BBC radio broadcasts, digitised for the first time from their original 78 rpm transcription discs. Now with a new, layered sound map. Reproduced by kind permission of BBC Worldwide. Go there »
WATERWAYS SOUND MAP
Recordings collected along London's canals, lesser rivers and streams and made into a pastiche of the London Underground map. Man-made noise, the calls of wildlife and the restless voice of water passing through culverts, weirs and channels.
Go there »
RICHARD BEARD'S HACKNEY WILDLIFE
High-quality urban wildlife recordings made by Stoke Newington- based recordist Richard Beard. This addition to the original London wildlife section features birdsong and the calls of some other animals from Abney Park, Walthamstow Marshes and elsewhere. Go there »
SOUND MAP RECORDINGS
Stereo recordings of ambient sounds all across London, including a grid series of recordings made at regular points on the map. From woodland and suburban streets to steam museums and night-time West End crowds. Go there »
THAMES ESTUARY RECORDINGS
Recordings made along the Kent and Essex shores of the Thames estuary, as well as further inland, capturing the sounds of industry, wildlife, marshland, and towns from Dartford to Sheerness. Go there »
SOUND ACTION RECORDINGS
Stereo recordings of sounds designed and made to have an impact on other people, and also of events where there's a main focus of attention. Includes traders' cries in London markets, voices of officialdom, hustlers, buskers, pub singalongs, carnivals and parades. Go there »
HISTORICAL SOUNDS AND MAPS
London history explored through its past sounds in works by Pepys, Dickens, Charlotte Bronte, Orwell and others. Accounts include how loud the London Bridge cataracts were and the sales-patter of quack doctors. Also, search for time-obliterated places with historical London maps in high resolution. Go there »
Field recordings
Sounds of London's past
Mr. Guppy casts up his eyes at the portrait of Lady Dedlock over the mantelshelf and replies, “Tony, you are asked to leave that to the honour of your friend. Besides its being calculated to serve that friend in those chords of the human mind which—which need not be called into agonizing vibration on the present occasion—your friend is no fool. What’s that?” “It’s eleven o’clock striking by the bell of Saint Paul’s. Listen and you’ll hear all the bells in the city jangling.” Both sit silent, listening to the metal voices, near and distant, resounding from towers of various heights, in tones more various than their situations. When these at length cease, all seems more mysterious and quiet than before.
Archival recording
Nearly 40,000 followers stay up to date with the London Sound Survey on SoundCloud
Give the Survey a virtual pat on the back by 'liking' its Facebook page.
– Sound Ethnography blog
– The Domestic Soundscape
– Record Collector magazine
– The London Ear
– Eye Contact
– Londonist
– Comment on Daily Mail website