LINKED is a radio installation/sound walk,  a response to the creation of the M11 Link Road in East London in the 1990s which involved the demolition of over 400 homes following a 10 year protest.

LINKED is installed on radio transmitters which play from lampposts across 3 miles of the city. Since it was launched as a Museum of London commission in 2003, these transmitters have broadcast over a million times the voices and stories of 100+ people who lived or worked in the buildings erased by the road; it is playing whether anyone is listening or not and has in effect become a secret, ghostlike layer of the city. 

To experience this sound work in person, you can borrow a small radio receiver, headphones and map on one of our regular open days hosted in libraries along the route. You are also very welcome to get in touch if you would like to borrow this kit and organise your own group to go on the sound walk.

We can offer guidance on shorter routes, and you are welcome to do one section, have a rest in one of the many cafes en route, and come and go as you wish. The full route takes several hours to complete on foot, by wheelchair or by bike.

Our next LINKED open days will be announced early in 2026.

FURTHER INFO

LINKED has endured as perhaps the largest sonic installation and sculptural entity in London for 20 years, broadcasting over a million times the voices and stories of people who lived or worked in the area impacted by the road.

Along a route between Hackney Marshes and Redbridge Roundabout (adjacent to the Link Rd) analogue radio transmitters reveal the voices and stories of 60 people who once lived and worked in the area – families, road protestors, railway-workers, a lollipop lady, teachers, disco-goers, and artists from the substantial community living in houses destroyed by the road – among them Cornelia Parker, John Smith, Christine Binnie and Ian Bourn. Together the assembly of voices evokes a fascinating and moving cross-section of East London life.

LINKED was intended to remain unseen, an almost secret layer of the geography of the communities where it transmits. It is in perpetual dialogue with the walker/listener who animates the work with their attention, finding their own narratives and in this sense, it is a social sculpture intended for a dynamic and changing area.

The transmitters broadcast on a single frequency and with a receiver the walker is able to navigate the neighbourhoods adjacent to the motorway, finding pools of sound that relate to the specific locations.

Over the passage of time this work about the politics and poetry of place has come to reflect issues relating to community, environment and protest and the impact of sudden, top-down developments on people and place.

CREDITS

LINKED was originally commissioned by the Museum of London in 2003 and produced by Mark Godber, Judith Knight and Gill Lloyd of Artsadmin. The making of LINKED was generously supported by Arts Council England (ACE), Heritage Lottery Fund, London Boroughs Grants Committee part of the Association of London Government, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and the London Boroughs of Redbridge and Waltham Forest. The restoration of LINKED (2022 – 2024) is supported by ACE.

With thanks to all the many interviewees, production teams and friends involved in developing LINKED and to the researchers who developed the interview content for LINKED (2003): Lucy Cash, Myra Heller, Dan Saul, Michael Sherin, Helen Statman. Original technical design by Simon Beer of Integrated Circles.

Production (2023-5): Steve Wald, Mike Harrison, Lydia Newman, Chris Warner, Lou Doyle
Executive Producer: Nikki Tomlinson

RECENT

14 open days hosted at Leytonstone and Wanstead Libraries in 2024 – 25

LINKED re-commissioned by Morris Gallery as an offsite work, part of Radical Landscapes TATE touring programme (2023)

Round table at Morris Gallery: Abel Holsborough, Zaiba Jabbar, Graeme Miller, Hadrian Garrard

Featured on Radio 3 Late Junction ‘Pipe Dreams and Radio Ghosts’ produced by Reduced Listening (2023)

Sound Table participatory talk at Leytonstone Library hosted by Lydia Newman (2024)
Screening & talk at Filly Brook, Leytonstone Art Trail (2024)

Bespoke tour for Leytonstone walking group for over 60s (2024)

FRIENDS of LINKED gathering at Fillybrook (2024)

Guided walk, London College of Communication (2024)

Streamed talk from London College of Communication (2024)