Favourite London Sounds

Your Favourite London Sound CD

Track listing

1. Big Ben (street) 0:51

London's most famous sound is broadcast to the world daily from a microphone high in the tower. This is how it sounds from street level.

2. London Bridge station 2:07

3. Brixton station (recording Matthias Kispert) 1:49

Emerging from the underground station into the street.

4. 'Mind the gaps' at Bank underground station 0:49

5. Bank of England 1.00am 1:36

A city back alley, the 'chinks' are ropes blowing against a flagpole.

6. Blackbird dawn chorus, 4.00am in May 2:05

Blackbirds are London's commonest songbirds. So much so that on occasions it is virtually the only species singing. The sound reverberates up and down the street, which gives a particularly urban feel.

7. Brick Lane 1:51

Heart of London's Bangladeshi community.

8. Bagel shop, Brick Lane 1:22

Open 24 hours a day this is one of London's favourite night stops.

9. 73-Bus bell 0:25

10. Bus pressure (recording Tom Wallace) 1:00

11. Butlers Wharf, Thames sounds 2:01

The River Thames is surprisingly quiet and one has to search for its sounds. The two here are slurps under the overhang of the wharf and squeaky barges rising and falling on the swell.

12. Canal towpath stones 0:35

Along London's canal towpaths are areas of loose concrete slabs which rock musically when cycled over.

13. Club queue, Hoxton 1:47

14. Coffee in Soho 1:39

the voice of Tom Brake

15. Dalston Market 1:29

16. Deptford Market 2:09

Sounds of the market packing up around 4.30pm on a Saturday

17. Depford Grid sub station 2:20

Charles Hayward explains.

18. Regents Park to Oxford Circus 5:00

Underground journey on the Bakerloo Line

19. Escalator, King’s Cross underground station 0:40

20. Euston main line (recording Bunny Schendler) 1:21

21. Slamming train doors Victoria Station 1:36

A sound fast disappearing from London's soundscape. Recorded 1987

22. Evening birds in Abbney Park Cemetery, early May 1:59

Among the species heard are Song Thrush, Blackbird, Robin and Wood Pidgeons.

23. Michelle phone message 0:58

24. Fountain Victoria Park 1.00am 1:25

With honking Canada Geese

25. Great Court at the British Museum 2:09

People murmering and cafe clinks heard in the fabulous acoustic of the museums's new court. Classic stone, classic reverberation.

26. Helicopter/East London Mosque 5:51

The Muslim call to prayer is a recent addition to London's soundscape. Situated in Whitechapel the East London mosque is very close to the city heliport.

27. Key in the front door 0:36

28. Onions frying in my flat 1:10

29. Post through the letterbox 1:20

30. Nightingale/hum 0:56

A unique outer London sound combination, Europe’s most spectacular bird song against the all pervasive high voltage substation hum.

31. London thunder 4:09

32. Rain on skylight while lying in bed 1:31

33. Bleeps at the supermarket checkout, Safeways, Stoke Newington 0:46

34. Spurs football - White Hart Lane (recording Clive Bell) 2:55

Through the turnstiles.

35. St James Park/2 species of baby 0:59

Two human toddlers imitate a very young coot chick screeching to be fed.

36. Under the flyover, Hackney Wick 1:06

Vehicles bumping over the expansion joints in the flyover, as heard from below.

37. Taxis waiting at Euston station 0:59

38. Transformer, London Regional Transport, Putney 1:40

Part of the underground’s electricity supply, the hum varies in tone with the changing current drawn by passing trains.

39. Swifts over Stoke Newington 0:54

Swifts, screaming around the rooftops, are a definitive summer sound and mark out spaces upwards and outward in a way that few others do. The knowledge that these birds migrate thousands of miles to the warmth of Africa makes it, for me, a sound that connects London to the world outside.

40. 16th floor up 3:25

London from near the top of a tower block on a damp March evening, Holloway Road