A deserted Leicester Square

Will Cohen made a series of recordings around London just before the Covid-19 lockdown in March, to capture the changing sounds of a city dealing with the coronavirus pandemic. 

"In the final days before London was shut down in March 2020, I made sound recordings of areas that I care about as a Londoner. From documenting spots that I skated at as a teenager, through to areas I have worked in - I wanted to see what familiar sounds still resonated at this unprecedented time. I used the binaural microphone technique - if you close your eyes and imagine, the physics behind this method of sound capture will immerse you in a 3D stereo environment pictured in the stills that I took on my journey."

"As a kid I spent a lot of time in the London Trocadero arcades just around the corner from this spot. Shot just a stone's throw from the main pedestrian square and cinemas, this is where everyone and their family come to get their tickets for the West End theatres."

Part of the #StayHomeSounds project, documenting the sounds of the global coronavirus lockdown around the world - for more information, see http://www.citiesandmemory.com/covid19-sounds