London's Lost Worlds of Sound

An evening presented by Ian Rawes of the London Sound Survey, featuring rarely-heard and never-heard recordings of the city's life from the 1950s back to the late 1880s. These sounds, captured by broadcasters and amateurs alike, bring to life a rowdy, vocal London filled with vigour and eccentricity. Lavender sellers and fortune tellers, the vanished songs of schoolchildren, fire stations and sewer workers, the propaganda and reality of the Blitz - all these and much more are lined up for a night not to be missed by anyone with an interest in the history of recording, of radio, or of London itself.

Ian Rawes, formerly of the British Library's sound archive, began the London Sound Survey with a collection of 200 recordings five years ago.It has since grown to over 1,500 recordings and has been featured in the national press and on local radio and TV.