Explore London in Google Street View

London was never designed. It grew by absorbing villages, and the villages are still legible: Hampstead, Greenwich, Dulwich and a dozen others each keep a high street, a green and a church that predate the city reaching them. In Street View this means the texture changes every few minutes rather than every few miles, and the change is usually abrupt. A Georgian terrace ends and a 1960s estate begins at a single junction.

The obvious circuit is the one along the river, and it holds up. The South Bank is walkable from Westminster to Tower Bridge, and because the path is pedestrian it was captured on foot, which puts the camera at eye level rather than car-roof height. That difference is more noticeable than it sounds. Looking across at the Houses of Parliament from a footpath feels like standing there; the same view from a road feels like a photograph.

For the version of London that people actually live in, leave the centre. Columbia Road on a weekday is a quiet terrace of shopfronts. The camera has also caught it during the Sunday flower market, and the difference between the two is the most interesting before-and-after in the city. Brick Lane runs from curry houses at one end to vintage shops and street art at the other, and the murals change often enough that the imagery is a record of a specific year rather than a permanent state.

Abbey Road is the single most searched Street View location in the city and it repays a look for an unexpected reason. The crossing is ordinary, the studio is a plain white building behind a wall, and there is almost always somebody in the imagery attempting the photograph. It is a small monument to a record sleeve, kept alive entirely by people turning up.

The parks are better than expected. Hyde Park, Regent's Park and Hampstead Heath all have footpath coverage, and Hampstead in particular gives you something rare: an actual hill, with a view back over the whole city from Parliament Hill. Greenwich Park does the same from the other side, with the added trick of the meridian line running under your feet.

One quirk worth knowing. Central London has a great deal of scaffolding in Street View, permanently, because the imagery from any given street was captured in a single pass and something was always being repaired. It is not a fault in the coverage. It is an accurate portrait of a city that has been under refurbishment continuously since about 1666.