The island city-state of Singapore has become the first city in Southeast Asia to be photographed and added to Google’s ever-growing street view database. The camera car passed through earlier this year and snapped some stunning shots of Singapore’s most famous landmarks. Attractions like the Raffles Hotel and the Esplanade shine on what appears to be an absolutely beautiful day in the microstate.

The Merlion statue at Merlion Park is visible off the waterfront at Marina Bay. The half lion, half fish creature is considered by many to be the mythical symbol of Singapore. Or, if you would rather see real animals, perhaps a trip to the world-famous Singapore Zoo is in order?

Google’s recent imagery also shows us the brand new Formula 1 facility used to stage the Singapore Grand Prix. When it started in 2008 the event was the first ever night race in Formula 1 history¹, using closed city streets and 1,600 flood lamps to create a race track that snakes past many of Singapore’s most beautiful attractions.

We actually found one frame from the street view car near the Esplanade that was taken on a different day showing the streets in preparation for the race. You can see the temporary walls, fencing, and flood lamps all in place awaiting the arrival of screaming race cars.

Take a look around and let us know what you see!

As yet there hasn’t been an official announcement, but today has nevertheless seen a ton of new Street View imagery released right across the world.

The biggest news is that Singapore has received coverage for the first time, becoming the third Asian country to get coverage after Japan and Taiwan earlier this year.

Raffles Hotel in Singapore

Canada, which has only had Street View for a couple of months, has just been blessed¹ with new coverage of Edmonton, Hamilton, London (Ontario), Saskatoon, St. John’s, Sudbury, Winnipeg and Victoria!

BC Parliament Buildings, ‎Victoria

That’s not all either – remember when Google asked for the UK public’s feedback on where the Google Trike should go next? Well the imagery has been released and they’ve visited some of the most iconic off-road locations across the country! We’re posting them all to our twitter feed today, but we’ll be rounding them all up later on too.

The original Stonehenge

Expect to see loads of funny, crude, rude and fascinating new sights posted to our Twitter feed in the coming weeks! If you don’t already, you really should follow us on Twitter!

Thanks to Google Maps Mania and Mapperz

Ah, New York City… it can easily be thought of as one of the busiest, most congested places on the planet. Its miles and miles of blacktop are usually covered with thousands of people shuffling furiously from one place to the next. On GSS’s last visit, we came across this poor kid who seemed to buckle under the pressure!

However, nestled deep inside New York’s concrete canyons you can still find a few places that take you back to the past. These buildings were built in a simpler time when things weren’t quite as hectic, and yet they survived as the big city grew up around them.

The oldest building in New York City is the Pieter Claesen Wyckoff House. It’s believed to have been built in 1652. Today it sits in Milton Fidler Park, right between a junkyard and a McDonald’s!

Our next stop is the John Bowne House located in Queens. It was built around 1661 and was the site of a Quaker meeting in 1662¹. The Bowne family lived in the house until 1945, when they turned it over to the Bowne Historical Society². Today, the building sits right under the approach path for busy LaGuardia airport, which is less than 2 miles to the west.

The Frederick Van Cortlandt House in the Bronx was built in 1748. The family used the land around the house to establish a grain plantation. The house was also used during the American Revolutionary War. Today, the land has been preserved and converted to a public park, and the house has been a museum since 1897.

Right across the street from Ground Zero sits St. Paul’s Chapel. The chapel was built in 1766 and is the oldest surviving church building in the city of New York³. While recovery efforts were underway after the September 11, 2001 attacks, the chapel served as a place of rest and refuge for recovery workers.

Finally, to give you an idea of how much times have changed over the years, we visit the Mount Vernon Hotel Museum. It was completed in 1799 and was built as a means of “escape” from busy city life. At the time New York City only extended down to 14th street, so this location was actually considered “out in the country” for the city’s residents. Over time, the city grew and the building became a museum in 1933. Today the building sits in New York’s Lenox Hill community, right down the street from the south end of Central Park.

Check Wikipedia for more information about these structures and a full list of the oldest buildings in New York City.

Thanks to Terri.

It’s not uncommon to stumble across some interesting sights and shapes when you browse through Google Maps, but there’s something special about stumbling across forest clearings that surely must be man-made, but there’s no obvious reason for the recognisable shapes!

In southern Poland, outside the town of Bokowno, we find the shape of a north arrow carved out of the nearby woods. It measures close to a massive 525 metres from one end to the other, and appears to be lined-up perfectly in a north direction. There are two sand production facilities nearby, so perhaps the arrow is used by one of these companies?

Outside of Pensaukee, Wisconsin you will find the word FOWL grown into the shoreline of Lake Michigan. Is this perhaps a warning to passing planes that there may be geese and ducks around?

In Oregon’s Umpqua National Forest, there appear to be two dice cut into the trees. Could this be tied into a local environmental project? Or perhaps it’s something to whet the appetites of air travellers en-route to Las Vegas, which is almost exactly 1,000 km to the south east.

Can anyone shed any light on these bizarre forest formations?

Also see our previous forest art posts on sharks, fonts and very large writing!

Thanks to Gabor Doka, Kendall, Mastboy, Mark, local_gurl, Derek, Denny, Mr. P, and Max.

Belfast is well known for its many murals representing differing political and religious views of the city’s communities.

However in recent years, thanks to the Good Friday Agreement, there has been a move away from the political murals to more community-based murals, and in this post we shall deal with murals relating to sport; industrial heritage; and the arts within the city.

Sports

There are many sporting heroes of Belfast, probably the most popular of all being George Best: without doubt Northern Ireland’s greatest football player.

There are many other murals to the NI international football team, including one in honour to a famous victory over England.

There are also murals to local football clubs Glentoran FC and Linfield FC.

Gaelic games are more favoured in Nationalist areas, with murals to Ard Eoin Kickhams GAA club and to Liam McCarthy.

There are 2 murals to other local sporting heroes, Snooker player Alex Higgins and Kickboxer Gary Hamilton.

INDUSTRY

Belfast is also very well known for its industrial past. RMS Titanic was constructed in the Harland and Wolff dockyards.

Historically, Belfast has been a centre for the Irish linen industry (earning the nickname “Linenopolis”) and Short Brothers (now Bombardier) also manufacture aircraft in the city.

ARTS

CS Lewis, author of the Narnia books, was born in Belfast in 1898 and like any son of Belfast he also has a mural or two. There is also a mural to traditional Irish music and a nod to Picasso’s Guernica.

And, to finish off, there is always someone with a sense of humour: “Santa is a British Agent” and “TV Licence Men Beware”.

There are many more murals, visit murals of Belfast to find some of them.