This is Southend Pier in Southend-on-Sea, England. At a staggering 2,158 metres, it is officially the world’s longest pleasure pier. Work began in 1887, and at the peak of its popularity in 1949, Southend Pier had 7 million visitors.

Southend Pier really is absolutely humongous, and there’s all sorts of stuff to see. There’s a funfair with loads of rides on the shore, there’s some people wandering around, there’s a train on the pier (yes, it has it’s own railway to get you to the end), and you can also see where the track splits to allow the pier’s two trains to pass.

Unfortunately the pier was damaged by fire late last year, and not for the first time either – it previously suffered conflagrations in 1959, 1976 and 1995! However the Google Local shots shown here are from before the fire, so you can still see the now-destroyed train station and restaurant. There’s also a visitors centre here too.

One more interesting tidbit – Southend Pier was featured in the end credits of Minder, if anyone other than me remembers that show!

The Southend Pier Wikipedia page has loads more info, and for more extremely long things like this, see the previously posted Extremely Long Jetties.

Thanks to Jonathan Rawle, Remko Jansen and Cookie Monster.

This smiley was originally painted on the roof of Narrows Plaza Business Park by owner, Bruce, and his employee, Dan.

They originally painted the smiley back in 1994 as a joke for their pilot friends (plural!) but have recently been contacted by lots of Google Earth users wanting to know why the face is there.

More information in today’s News Tribune article, which also features a few words from yours truly.

Thanks: Jason Hagey & Kevin Freitas

The Emley Moor Tower (formerly the NTL Tower) is a transmitting station in an area of moorland near Huddersfield in West Yorkshire. It’s Britain’s tallest free-standing structure at 330m and casts no shadow in this excellent aerial shot.

Thanks: Jonathan Rawle

Of 7,377 WW2 Lancaster bombers built only two survive, one in Canada and the other in England as part of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight. Last month a keen-eyed Google Earth user managed to find the English bomber, the City of Lincoln, flying over Huntingdon and this same image is now available in Google Local.

There’s loads of ground level photos on airliners.net and more on the plane from the RAF.

Thanks: Ant

Submitter Cybervox points us to a suspicious building that supposedly houses a furniture manufacturer, yet has almost a dozen satellite dishes in various sizes. His website has ground level photos and speculation on what goes on there.

Government conspiracy or a guy with a lot of TV channels? Decide for yourselves.

Update: If you can’t be bothered deciding for yourself then read this very thorough comment from kjfitz, who completely debunks the conspiracy theories.

Thanks: Cybervox & kjfitz