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   [45]Family & Education

Recordings show lockdown London quieter than 1928

   By Sean Coughlan BBC News family and education correspondent
     * 28 July 2020

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   Empty London roads in lockdown Image copyright Damien Hewetson Image
   caption The soundscape of roads without traffic noise will be in the
   museum's archive

   Recordings of silent London streets during the lockdown are to become
   part of the collection of the Museum of London.

   These soundscapes will be kept in a project capturing the experiences
   of Covid-19.

   They are being made available online alongside sound recordings of the
   same London streets from 1928.

   And it shows how the lockdown streets of 2020 were far quieter than
   almost a century before.

   The recordings of London's streets in 1928, being made [65]publicly
   available on the museum's website, were gathered in the middle of
   outrage over excessive traffic noise.

   An anti-noise pollution campaign, spearheaded by the Daily Mail,
   complained about "irritating" and "unnecessary" hooting - and
   criticised the "screeching" and noisy acceleration of "so-called sports
   cars" in London's West End.
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   The newspaper, which gathered recordings with the Columbia Graphophone
   Company, warned of hospital patients being unable to sleep and the
   constant sounds of "engines, bells and whistles".
   Image copyright Museum of London Image caption The north side of
   Leicester Square in the 1920s

   The September 1928 recordings published by the Museum of London include
   a commentary picking out the brakes of a "motorbus" or the rumble of a
   "motorcoach", alongside the rattle of horse-drawn carriages.

   "There's a motor bicycle without a proper silencer," says the
   commentator.

   In contrast, [69]the recordings from May 2020, at London locations such
   as Piccadilly, Brompton Road and Leman Street, show the emptiness of
   streets during the Covid-19 lockdown.
   Image copyright Museum of London Image caption Leicester Square at
   night in the early 1930s

   There are cars still audible, but they are separate enough to be
   distinguished, with gaps in between rather than a constant roar.

   And the recordings, gathered by the Strings and Tins group of sound
   engineers, show that even in a much emptier city, there is still a wash
   of background noise.

   The reduction in traffic noise and the absence of flights overhead
   became a talking point during the lockdown, with suggestions that it
   was a return to a much quieter time.

   But that quieter time was not 1928, according to the museum's
   recordings.

   In clipped tones, the commentator, a former naval officer, takes issue
   with the blaring horns and says how difficult it was to cross
   (pronounced "craws") the road.
   Image copyright Damien Hewetson Image caption The view near to
   Leicester Square during the lockdown of 2020

   Even though car ownership in the 1920s was much less common than now,
   driving was much more dangerous.

   The first official road death figures were gathered in 1926 - and there
   were almost 4,900 fatalities, compared with about 1,900 in 2019.

   Foteini Aravani, the Museum of London's digital curator, said the 1928
   recordings were made when the "effects of sound pollution in central
   London were only starting to be understood".
   Image copyright Damien Heweston Image caption Sound engineers captured
   the absence of traffic in central London

   A century later, she says the challenge was to record the absence of
   sound, which had become a "distinct aspect of London in lockdown".

   "We felt it was our responsibility to capture this rare and significant
   moment to not only contrast the 1928 recordings, but to also provide a
   record of London's rarely 'silent streets' for future generations,"
   said Ms Aravani.

   Or as the Daily Mail said in 1928: "We have become so used to the
   perpetual noise around us that many of us fail to appreciate what our
   poor brains are being called upon to endure."

Related Topics

     * [70]Traffic congestion and policy
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