London Sketches – Lend me your ears

Are you an eavesdropper? A stealer of sounds? An acoustic snoop? Well! London’s the place! It is a city that is never silent; a place where you can hear the thunderous grouching of a train across tracks. The tooting of horns from irritated drivers, the screech and hum of aircraft, the clang of gates or the ear-splitting shrill of a builder’s jackhammer. If you are near the river,  you can add in the chugging of boats, this disco-beat of a party vessel, the swish-swash of the tide and the honk and squawk of river birds. (At mass or evensong times, augment this soundscape with the melodic peal of church bells.)
Domestically, even as you pass windows, there’s the gurgling of ill-sorted plumbing, murmured or raised voices, f-words, the chime of mobile-phone, the grizzling of babes, the clank of kitchen dishes, and, if the walls are thin, the sharp inhalation of a cigarette.
Everywhere, you will collect snippets of conversations:
“You won’t believe this, you’ll be amazed, wait till I show you my…”
“Honeysuckle, Honey?”
“ Kings and Queens, like in America.”
“ ‘Barefoot’ is that like a shoe brand?”
If you seek silence in London, you must find the spacious nooks of the wealthy; the Inns of the Temple, the Guildhall, weekend Westminster streets, or a public park just as the sun rises – even then, you will still hear steady thrum of a dawn jogger’s interloping step 🙂