SoundsField recordingsFrequenciesDecibelsInstrumentsGlossaryToolsLearn
  1. Home
  2. Field recordings
  3. United Kingdom
  4. Reading
  5. The sound of a telephone booth bell – Reading
Field recording · United Kingdom

The sound of a telephone booth bell

90 A4, Reading RG1, UK

A field recording by Felicity Ford made in Reading, United Kingdom on 18 May 2017, in the evening. Soundscape: church bells and streets & traffic.

Listen

The sound of a telephone booth bell
0:00
Spectrogram of The sound of a telephone booth bell
Spectrogram of the full recording (time left to right, frequency bottom to top), generated by the Internet Archive.

Tip: press play to see the sound's live frequency spectrum in blue over the waveform.

Recordist's notes

Telephone booths have a sort of relic-like quality about them now that we all have mobile phones, and I found myself wondering how long it's been since this booth was either used to place or receive a call. You can hear the sounds of traffic on the road, the reflections from the bell-ringing practice further down the hill, and the mournful bleat of the unanswered phone as it rings away on its rocker.

Written by Felicity Ford on radio aporee ::: maps.

About the place

Reading is a city of about 318,014 people in England, United Kingdom. OttoAnna lists 153 field recordings from here.

Equipment mentioned: Smartphones. Phones have become surprisingly capable field recorders – many sound-map recordings were made on one.

Recorded nearby

More by Felicity Ford

More church bells recordings

Sources & credits