People we support worked with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields to create our SoundWalk: A City Full of Stories

Together, we harnessed music’s ability to empower people sleeping rough.

This summer, to mark 25 years of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields working with people experiencing homelessness, the Academy has developed a SoundWalk has been specially created for Marriner100 – the orchestra’s celebration of the centenary of its founder, Sir Neville Marriner.

This soundWalk is titled: ‘A City Full of Stories’

What is A City Full of Stories?

This city is full of stories, many unseen and unheard.

The windows and the bricks of buildings older than any of us: What have they seen? Who are the strangers that find themselves sitting next to each other on a bench? Where have they been and where are they going? Who are the creatures that we share the city with? What might the fox or the pigeon tell us if we took the time to listen?

This SoundWalk brings to life the imagined stories of the buildings and pathways that surround us. A City Full of Stories asks us to slow down, look around and listen…

This work is part of our community offer to people sleeping rough in London. We run a series of activity groups, both in our centre and with partners like the Academy of St Martin.

This includes art groups, creative writing classes and more which help reduce isolation and encourage people to explore new interests.

Learning new skills and being part of something does so much more than act as a respite from living on the streets. These activities help people process and recover from trauma in a comfortable environment. They give people a place to feel seen and heard after long periods of neglect.

A City Full of Stories is an immersive audio experience, created alongside people experiencing homelessness. It is best experienced using a smartphone and headphones.

To do the SoundWalk, head to St-Martin-in-the-Fields and pick up a leaflet, scan the QR code, download the Echoes app and hit Stream Walk.

Credits

Music and words by participants at The Connection at St Martin’s and The Outside Project

Artistic direction and workshop facilitation by Jackie Walduck, composer, and Hazel Gould, writer 

Music performed by participants at The Connection, members of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, and students from Royal Academy of Music’s Open Academy

Spoken word performed by David Ogundare

Recorded by Matt Catlow

Illustrations by Ruby Wright