London Street Noises

The talk will present the findings of a truly longitudinal soundscape study, London Street Noises, which commenced in 1928. The Daily Mail, in collaboration with the Columbia Gramophone Company Ltd. experimented with field recording to help communicate perceived loudness and identify the sources of “unnecessary noise”. This was probably the first concerted anti-noise campaign of this type and scale, requiring huge technological efforts. Following the presentation of the recordings in 1928 the regulatory bodies and politicians of the time reviewed and improved the policies around urban noise. Picked up by Drever, the project continues to the present day see: londonstreetnoises.co.uk