Specially collected imagery of iconic British locations has been made available for people to explore in Google Street View for the first time. Now Americans can discover top British landmarks with just a click of a mouse.
VisitBritain, the national tourist office for England, Scotland and Wales has joined forces with Google to showcase top tourist treasures Stonehenge, Millennium Stadium, Angel of the North, Eden Project, Warwick Castle and ‘wildcard’ Bamburgh Castle.
The locations were voted for by the British public in Google and VisitBritain’s online poll this summer and were photographed using the Google Trike. This custom-designed three-wheeled bike is equipped with a Street View camera and is designed to make special imagery collections in places less accessible by cars, such as historic landmarks.
Simon Bradley, executive vice-president for VisitBritain Americas, says: “This is a great way to give Americans a small taste of the fantastic attractions and destinations that await them in Britain. It’s a great way of using digital technologies to increase the accessibility of our destinations. Google users will be able to use Street View to virtually visit some British icons that I hope will inspire them and make them want to explore more for themselves.”
Google’s Geospatial Technologist, Ed Parsons says: “Whether planning a visit, reminiscing about a recent trip or simply learning about the history of Britain, these locations are the first special collections to be made available on Street View in the UK.”
Stuart Maughan, head of visitor operations at Stonehenge adds: “The virtual tour offers a great look at this awe-inspiring site, one of the world’s most recognisable historic monuments. We’re hoping this new technology will help make Stonehenge even more accessible and widen its appeal as a visitor attraction. Nothing beats the feeling of having 5,000 years of history right in front of you.”
Chris Calvert, Bamburgh Castle comments: “We’re really excited about seeing the castle on Street View, that one of the countries longest permanently occupied sites should be part of this state of the art technology is brilliant.”
Google’s Street View partnership programme enables other landmarks and attractions to sign up to be photographed by Google and is accessible here. More locations including Loch Ness are set to follow in the new year.
In areas where Street View is available, you can access street-level imagery by zooming into the lowest level on Google Maps, or by dragging the orange “Pegman” icon on the left-hand side of the map onto a blue highlighted street.
Google protects people’s privacy by applying automatic face-blurring and licence plate blurring to Street View images. In addition, people can easily flag images for additional blurring or removal by clicking on “Report a problem” on the bottom left of the image.