Storytelling Sound
Filter Audio: All, Sound Design, Music, Podcast, Film, Sonic Ident, Personal, Spatial, Installation, Field Recording
Storytelling Sound
Filter Audio:
All,
Sound Design,
Music,
Podcast,
Sonic Ident, Personal, Film, Spatial, Installation, Field Recording
The Central Tramway is one of Scarborough’s hidden attractions, serving passengers from the beach to town, the Victorian tramway has an incredible past. The Pop-up museum will give passengers a chance to take a look at some of the archives of the tramway, celebrate its rich history and learn more about the this interesting form of travel.
Built in 1881, the Central Tramway Company Scarborough Limited is a Victorian cliff railway on the Yorkshire coast. One of the oldest cliff railways still running in the UK, the Central Tramway has the distinction of being the oldest cliff tramway company in the country as the original corporation still operates the business today. In 2024, the Central Tramway Company was presented with a National Transport Trust Red Wheel, and was recognised as a Transport Heritage Site. In 2012 the company was presented with a Scarborough Civic Society Heritage Trail Blue Plaque marking this achievement, presented by Scarborough Mayor Helen Mallory.
This soundscape was commissioned to accompany the Pop-up Museum. It captures the hidden sonic life of the station lift, moving beyond passenger ambience to explore the intimate mechanics of its daily operation.
Utilising specialised tools like contact microphones, a geophone and electromagnetic field recording, the recording process uncovered details normally inaudible to the human ear; the sounds deep within the motor room, where the gearing and steel cables contribute to the operation. These layered and processed recordings were then arranged and processed with effects to create a narrative journey, with exaggerated transitions that signify the vast passing of time, representing the hundreds of thousands of journeys and people the lift has moved through different eras.
Built in 1881, the Central Tramway Company Scarborough Limited is a Victorian cliff railway on the Yorkshire coast. One of the oldest cliff railways still running in the UK, the Central Tramway has the distinction of being the oldest cliff tramway company in the country as the original corporation still operates the business today. In 2024, the Central Tramway Company was presented with a National Transport Trust Red Wheel, and was recognised as a Transport Heritage Site. In 2012 the company was presented with a Scarborough Civic Society Heritage Trail Blue Plaque marking this achievement, presented by Scarborough Mayor Helen Mallory.
This soundscape was commissioned to accompany the Pop-up Museum. It captures the hidden sonic life of the station lift, moving beyond passenger ambience to explore the intimate mechanics of its daily operation.
Utilising specialised tools like contact microphones, a geophone and electromagnetic field recording, the recording process uncovered details normally inaudible to the human ear; the sounds deep within the motor room, where the gearing and steel cables contribute to the operation. These layered and processed recordings were then arranged and processed with effects to create a narrative journey, with exaggerated transitions that signify the vast passing of time, representing the hundreds of thousands of journeys and people the lift has moved through different eras.