British Library Archival Sound Recordings

Off the record, on the QT, and very hush-hush...
This site was launched at the end of last month but I haven't heard anything about it from the usual (reliable) sources.
There does seem to be some teething problems, like the Athens login not working or not being mentioned in Athens resource lists... Hold on, I'll just check. No. Not yet.
Anyway the BLASTER (or is that BLASER?) site will allow you to "explore 12,000 selected recordings of music, spoken word, and human and natural environments.
Anyone can search or browse the information on this site. For copyright reasons, only people in licensed UK higher and further education institutions, or in our reading rooms can play the recordings. Downloading is available in licensed institutions.
Please note that content is still being added to the site. Some collections are not yet complete and some have only a small sample of recordings available at present."
Contents page is here.
We'll keep you informed of developments.

http://sounds.bl.uk/