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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.
    * [66]Deserted city centres around the world captured by
      photographers
    * [67]Aerial recordings show emptiness of London streets
    * [68]Boy's photos show 'lockdown moments' of Hull's empty streets

  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
    * [71]Coronavirus lockdown measures

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