The London Hum
Do you ever get used to the London hum?
When my sister in law lived in London she used to talk of it, how there always seems to be some background noise. Traffic, dustbins, people, crashing, banging. Back in Bristol we used to listen and marvel. What’s it like to live in such a noisy place? Now it’s my turn here and I kind of know what she was talking about.
Part of me wonders if I’ve missed it because I’ve just been camping for a week and got woken up by nothing but birds chirping (except for the one day near the end when someone decided it would be a great idea to test how good the speakers in their car were by pumping out some Drum & Bass at 5 in the morning - listen pal, Drum & Bass is never good at any time of day, but if there had to be a worse time for it then I’d say 5am was it).
Yesterday I left home later than usual, partly because I’m owed some time, but mainly because I couldn’t face getting up at 4 o’clock after my holiday. I remember thinking how quiet it was compared to here. I’ve been waking up in London for over a year now and I still don’t think I’m used to it.
So is the London hum something that you get used to, is it something that you grow to love or is it always there, in the background, gently reminding you that London, at least some parts of it anyway, is truly a 24 hour city?
Try the south. In Crystal Palace there are some rare moments when it is quiet. However, i do know what you mean about the ambient noise London is probably filled with nearly 100% of the time.
hum??? what hum????
LOL
At least you’ve only got a background hum. Where I live there’s also a phantom throb which switches itself on and off and echos through the drains and up into the pipework in the house. We think its a sewage pump.
New York City has a backgrond hum to it as well. You don’t really notice it after you’ve been there a few days, but it’s there. My first time up there as a tourist, we did the Empire State Bldg. On the observation deck, the street noise is muted, but the hum remains!
During the big power outage a couple years back, a friend of mine was stuck in Manhattan. He said the main thing he noticed (besides the obvious lack of electricity) was that the hum was gone.
I used to sleep to the sound of sirens (police ambulance whatnot), guys throwing up, random people screaming at eachother,cats howling etc. i lived in earls court (trebovir road) in a hostel and that too on the 4th floor!
now im in vienna and the only hum i hear is of the fridge but strangely it annoys me more!
Oh man, I stayed in a hotel in Earl’s Court once. It was the first week away of this year long stint. That was scary. There was a group in a room down the hall that were having some kind of ‘party’ all night (I use quote’s because it didn’t sound like any kind of party I’ve ever been to). Certainly drowned out the noise of the hum, that’s for sure.
I’m used to the ‘hum’ now! Been in London over 3 years, and now when I go back up north to visit my parents I can’t sleep because its to quiet! Odd….