While I don’t admit to possess a particularly green thumb, I do have a penchant for anything which either looks good from the air, or lays claim to unnecessary, ambiguous World Records. Just like here at the Royal Botanic Gardens, or simply Kew Gardens, London, England.

A Royal Palace is usually a great place for a day out, but Kew’s is rather lacklustre, taking the title of the Smallest Palace in Britain. Nevertheless, it was the family home of George III, and it is here that he suffered his ‘madness’¹, which was presumably caused by the cost of the garden’s upkeep.

Sitting in the far corner of the gardens is the Great Pagoda which stands a pretty impressive 49 metres high. At the time it was built in 1763, it was the tallest Chinese-inspired structure in Europe. During World War 2, the towers were modified to test the way in which bombs fell, and today it affords rather splendid views over the Gardens, as these photos show.

When I started writing for Google Sightseeing, I decided as a rule never to post about compost heaps that I had found. I changed my tune entirely when I discovered Kew was home to the largest compost heap in the World, complete with its own viewing deck! The majority of this vast compost heap is used on the plants at Kew, some is actually auctioned off for charity.²

At almost 5000 square metres in area, and holding the title of Largest Victorian Glasshouse in the World, the Temperate House really is vast (twice the size of the nearby Palm House). At the centre of the Temperate House is the Chilean wine-palm, which at a heady 16 metres, towers into the record books as the World’s largest Indoor Plant.

This snazzy structure is the Princess of Wales’ conservatory, opened in 1987, its design is quite blatantly stolen from blueprints of Darth Vadar’s Star Destroyer. Within this and the other glasshouses, Kew has over 30,000 living plants, and 7 million seed specimens.

Find out more about Kew at their official website, and at Wikipedia, whilst there are loads of photos at flickr. Thanks to Lindsay Marshall, Stephen Train and Tom.

The first Street View images outside America are now available – Street View has come to France!

Added in celebration of the upcoming Tour de France, the street view images are mostly restricted to the race route (rather than allowing you to explore whole cities).

However, there is lots to see, including the most classic of sights: The Eiffel tower¹.

Street View cars have been spotted all over Europe, so other countries are no doubt on the way.

In the meantime, let us know what you find in France and, if you speak French, make sure you’re subscribed to Google Sightseeing Français.

Thanks: Google Maps Mania

As the summer wedding season gets into full swing, even Google is muscling in on the action, and has managed to capture a rather charming shot of the newlyweds – probably much to the disappointment of the photographer who wanted the exclusive!

In my opinion, a spectacular photo opportunity, as this is Columbus Circle in New York City, a famous landmark which is surrounded by amazing skyscrapers – not least the Trump International Hotel and Tower behind the party.

Along with the 44 story luxury hotel, Columbus Circle features the New York home of CNN as well as The Time Warner Centre, two striking glass towers which each top out at 229m. This is also home to a record-breakingly expensive penthouse that was sold in 2003 for $54.7 million.

Thanks to the new imagery which allows for nearly 360 degree views, you can see all of New York’s skyscrapers instead of the first 5 floors of them, so get hunting and tell us!

Find out more about the history of Columbus Circle at Wikipedia, as well as more on The Time Warner Centre and Trump International Hotel and Tower.

Thanks: streetviewfun

The 12th tallest member of the World Federation of Great Towers, Auckland’s Sky Tower is 328 metres tall (from ground level to the top of the mast), which makes it the tallest free-standing structure in the Southern Hemisphere¹.

Friend of Google Sightseeing, Nev, is currently doing a 29000 mile trip around the planet, and yesterday (or today, or possibly tomorrow depending on your time zone) decided to leap off this very tower. Twice.

He was able to achieve this death-defying feat thanks to a “fan descender free fall system” that controlled his descent over 192 metres! Here’s a picture of someone engaging in this utterly ridiculous pastime.

If you’re thinking this all sounds a bit familiar, then you may have read our 2005 post on the Macau Sky Tower, which was commissioned by billionaire Stanley Ho Hung-Sun after he saw the Auckland Sky Tower, and decided he wanted one for himself. A little bit taller, naturally.

You can read more about the Auckland Sky Tower at Wikipedia, or entertain yourself with posts about other members of the World Federation of Great Towers that we’ve featured in the past.

Last Sunday saw the swearing in of Boris Johnson, conservative MP for Henley (and renowned committer of gaffes), as the new Mayor of London. This means that, not only will he have power over nearly everything in Greater London, he will also take up office in London’s rather spectacular City Hall.

Opened in 2002, the glass clad building contains a 500 metre helical walkway, which eventually reaches ‘London’s Living Room’, a large space 10 floors up which affords rather spectacular views over the River Thames, and which also played host to Boris’ acceptance speech at the weekend (and unsurprising trip-up beforehand!).

Perhaps the new Mayor will be more accepting of the Norman Foster design than Ken Livingstone, who famously likened the building to a ‘glass testicle’. Boris however is said to refer to it as ‘The Onion’ – which fits, since the nearby ‘Gherkin’ is another work by Foster and Partners.¹

Here’s a link to the Live Maps Bird’s Eye view of London City Hall which really demonstrates the tower’s bizarre shape, or you can see lots of pictures and read more about it at GreatBuildings and wikipedia. Thanks to Krusader.