Forget the Oscars – these are the awards that count at Google Sightseeing! The guys at Google are planning to expand their Street View coverage of the UK in the near future, and to get us in the mood they asked the public to vote for their favourite British streets in three categories: the most picturesque, the best for fashion and the best for food.

Now more than 11,000 votes have been counted, and the three Best Streets in Britain have been named. Not all the winners are yet visible on Street View, but rumour has it that Google will be putting that right soon, so watch this space…

Most picturesque street: Shambles, York

It might seem odd that the name of the winner in this category normally describes something that’s a total mess – but “shambles” originally referred to a meat market. This narrow medieval street in York is lined with timber-framed buildings, some of them more than 600 years old, which used to house at least two dozen butchers’ shops. Raw meat would be displayed on shelves outside the shops, and the gutter down the middle of the street would run with blood and offal.

Today, there are no butchers on the Shambles itself (although there is still one on the adjacent Little Shambles) and things are somewhat less gory – chocolate shops and tea rooms are the order of the day.

At number 35, you can see the former home of Margaret Clitherow, who was arrested in 1586 for harbouring Catholic priests, and sentenced to death by “pressing” (being crushed beneath a heavy weight). She was made a saint in 1970 and the house is now a shrine.

Most picturesque street runner-up: Royal Crescent, Bath

This grand curve of Georgian houses was designed by John Wood the Younger and completed in 1774. There’s no Street View yet, but Wikipedia has a good panorama of the whole street.

A couple of interesting bits of trivia about the Royal Crescent: firstly, although the facades of the houses are all uniform, you can see from the aerial view that the design of the houses behind varies widely, as each was built to a different specification for the original buyers. Second, it has been suggested that the crescent, together with the Circus (the circular road just to the east) and streets just to the south were laid out to represent Masonic symbols.

Most picturesque street runner-up: Grey Street, Newcastle upon Tyne

Another curving Georgian street, this one was built in the 1830s. Although pipped to the top spot in Google’s awards, it headed a list of Britain’s favourite streets as voted by BBC Radio 4 listeners in 2002. (If you’re wondering about the rather drab name, it commemorates Earl Grey – yes, the same man who gave us funny-tasting tea.)

Best fashion street: Milsom Street, Bath

Another award for the city of Bath, which is not yet covered by Street View. The buildings here were originally grand town houses, but over time it has become a renowned shopping street, with small boutiques as well as Jolly’s department store, which dates back to the 1830s and is now part of the House of Fraser chain. Find more photos of the area at Geograph.

Best foodie street: High Street, Stockbridge

The market town of Stockbridge lies in the valley of the River Test, one of Hampshire’s famous trout streams. Its broad high street won the award for its range of pubs, inns, restaurants and specialist food shops¹. Again there’s no Street View yet, but you can find plenty more photos on Geograph.

You can see the full list of nominees here, with links to Street Views of those that are covered. But do you know better? Have you found a more picturesque, stylish or downright tasty street, in the UK or abroad? If it’s on Street View, let’s have a look at it…

In 1859 a wealthy man bought a piece of land overlooking the River Clyde, on which he built a mansion. When the mansion was expanded in 1892, an access road over the Overtoun Burn was required, and so the Overtoun Bridge was built.

50 years later a bizarre series of suicides began to take place on the bridge, whereby dogs would regularly throw themselves to their deaths from the parapets.

Since the suicides began, it is claimed that at least 50 dogs have killed themselves here; all at virtually the same spot, and all of them long-nosed breeds.

Why they jumped is still a mystery.

Many theories have been put forward; hypnotic water sounds, some sort of interference from a nearby nuclear base, electrical impulses, and even ghosts – but it took a canine psychologist (and a Channel 5 documentary) to provide a vaguely plausible explanation.

Bing maps view of Overtoun bridge and one of the estate’s buildings.

Dr David Sands found that Mink were breeding under the bridge, and posits that their strong scent is simply irresistible to inquisitive dogs. Combine this with a dog’s low viewpoint, and perhaps one can see why a dog would leap over the edge to their death.

However, with around 20,000 mink in Scotland, it seems a little strange that dogs aren’t chucking themselves off more bridges all over the country.

So, why do you think all these dogs decided to end it all from the Overtoun Bridge?

More info: Overtoun Bridge at Wikipedia.

Once a year, streets all over the world transform into professional racing circuits to play host to some the greatest drivers and cars in the world. Parking lots are turned into paddocks, parks are remodelled with grandstands, and intersections on the road become high-speed overtaking points in battles for world championships. Local governments often use these events to promote tourism on the worldwide stage and races can often inject millions of dollars in revenue into the surrounding communities.

Let’s take a look at some of the more unique street circuits around the world…

1. Monte Carlo, Monaco – Since 1929, the streets of Monte Carlo have been home to a motor race each year, and today the principality is home to Formula One’s Monaco Grand Prix. A lap around the 3.34 km (2.075 mi) circuit goes directly underneath the Grand Hotel via a tunnel and ricochets around a swimming pool next to the city’s harbour. The track continues to hold events each year in late May.

2. Norisring, Nuremberg, Germany – Built on top of former Nazi party rally grounds in Nuremberg, this track is 2.3 km (1.4 mi) in length and uses the grandstand from Zeppelin Field as it’s centrepiece. The track is host to the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters series and the Formula 3 Euro Series each year.

3. Cleveland, Ohio, USA – The Grand Prix of Cleveland was held from 1982 to 2007 on the fully functioning Burke Lakefront Airport in Cleveland, Ohio. The airport had to be shut down once a year for a week to get converted into a 10-turn racetrack. Traces of the track are hard to see these days on Google Maps, but if you look closely you can see some tires stacked up near turn 8, various asphalt patches along the racing line on the taxiways (used to try and smooth out the bumpy track for the lightweight race cars), and some tire tracks from the pit stalls. Races are rumoured to return in 2010 but nothing has been announced yet.

Keep an eye out for follow-up posts on more street circuits around the world, including some that you can lap with the Street View car! Stay tuned!

In the Spanish town of Mejorada Del Campo, former monk Justo Gallego Martínez has devoted the past 50 years of his life to constructing a cathedral, all by himself.

After contracting tuberculosis as as a young man, Don Justo promised to build a cathedral dedicated to “Our Lady of the Pillar” if he recovered from his illness.

A man of his word, Don Justo hasn’t let his lack of architectural knowledge impede this mission – there are no architectural plans for the cathedral; the design has simply been inspired by other churches and Don Justo’s own vision. However, this has led to concerns about the building’s structural integrity.

Don Justo has done the majority of work by himself, but has had occasional assistance from family members or volunteers. He uses income from his farm to purchase some construction materials but the bulk are recycled, donated, or leftovers from nearby building projects.

It’s probably going to take another 15-20 years of work to complete the cathedral, but as Don Justo is now in his mid-80s, he may not be around to finish it himself.

Given the uncertain construction quality, and the fact that technically, permission for the construction was never granted in the first place, it’s clear that the town authorities will face a dilemma about whether to leave it standing after Don Justo’s eventual death.

Thanks to Nicolas.

What do you get when you mix fast heavy planes with small island airports? A hair-raising final approach! Let’s take a look at three scariest airports to fly into in the Caribbean.

Princess Juliana International Airport, St. Maarten (SXM)

Passengers arriving into Princess Juliana often fly just a few metres over the head of sunbathers below on Maho Beach. The combination of screaming jet aircraft and beautiful tropical scenery in such close proximity make this airport a mecca for the world’s plane spotters. In fact, check out this video showing the arrival of a 747, shot by yours truly on a 2004 trip.

Arrival isn’t the only exciting part of this airport either; departing aircraft must make an immediate right hand turn to avoid flying directly into the 317 m St. Peter Hill. At the same time, the departing planes blow a massive amount of jet blast back onto Maho Beach – so strong is the blast that it can cause you and your belongings to be blown right into the water if you’re not careful.

Gustaf III Airport, Saint Barthélemy (SBH)

This small airstrip is aligned east/west between the beach at St. Jean and a steep hill west of the airfield. Arriving aircraft have to fly very low to the ground and then descend rapidly down the side of an extremely steep hill to make the field. To make matters worse, the top of the hill has a traffic circle and the airfield itself is very short! Take a look at this picture to see how tight the approach really is.

Juancho E. Yrausquin Airport, Saba (SAB)

Built on the side of a potentially active volcano, Saba is home to the smallest commercial runway in the world. Juancho E. Yrausquin Airport’s single runway is only 396 m (1,300 ft) long, making the field totally inaccessible to anything but small aircraft flown by specially trained pilots, and helicopters.

To make matters worse, the ends of the runway drop 18 m (60 ft) off a vertical cliff into the ocean, while the side of the strip is covered in high hills.

To book a trip to any of these airports, use the three letter airport code next to the name. The weather’s great all year round!