To slow down a city that relies on speed to function can be a very effective way to draw attention to your cause. It’s something we discuss on London In Slow Motion. And we’ve seen some impressive examples recently. Take the People’s March last week and the student Climate Strike the week before – […]
‘London A to G’ is a 4 minute audio piece based on sounds I recorded around London in January and February, arranged in order of their pitch, from A up to G. If you have a musical ear, you’ll notice the slow motion upward glissando that underscores the edit. If not, it doesn’t matter. The piece […]
When William III introduced the window tax it was met with popular outrage. Famously, there were those who bricked in their windows to avoid paying. What might otherwise have been welcomed as a progressive tax on large property owners, was instead perceived as a charge on light (hence the expression ‘daylight robbery’) and air.I found myself […]
Remembrance Sunday this year falls on 11 November, exactly 100 years after Armistice Day. To mark the occasion London’s Imperial War Museum has a programme of exhibits and events that look at the moment peace broke out. What comes through strongly is the sonic quality of that moment. On the battlefield, there was an instant silencing of artillery […]
In the week that saw the launch of a 600m long floating barrier to clean up the Pacific Garbage Patch, we’ve been thinking about all the litter in London’s waterways. We’ve featured below three projects to tackle the problem that anyone can get involved in.Trash is, of course, something we talk about on A Rubbish Trip. We’re next leading […]
With September just around the corner, we’ve been turning our thoughts to Open House weekend on 22nd-23rd. It’s when hundreds of fabulous buildings in London open their doors to the public for free. There’s loads to delight lovers of architecture and the decorative arts. We’ve been rooting through the schedule for more Dotmaker-ish destinations. Here […]
Last Saturday I gained an insight into what London might feel like without cars. As part of the Ride London festival, Waterloo Bridge (pictured) and other roads round the city centre were reserved for cyclists. It was strange to walk along the Strand and hear only the sound of chatter and spinning wheels.For cyclists, the […]
It’s been a hot few weeks here in London. Above-ground, things have been made worse by the heat island effect: all the reflective hard surfaces and heat from cars and air conditioners, which mean that temperatures in the city centre can be up to 10C warmer than in the countryside. Things have been pretty steamy underground, […]
The Thames Tideway tunnel – also known as the ‘super sewer’ – will be the biggest infrastructure project ever undertaken by the UK water industry. I first heard about it in 2003. I had recently joined the legal team at the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), and was about to take on […]
I received this week the best thank you I’ve ever had for a walk: a wonderful poem. It’s called Abecedarian for the future sounds of the city and was written by the poet Sarah Salway who came on The London Ear on Tuesday evening. Sarah penned it afterwards as an example for her students of an ‘Abecedarian’, where the first […]
