I’ve had the privilege of serving alongside of Winona Kent for the past two years on the Crime Writers of Canada Board of Directors but I never knew her “Google Street View” trick until this moment. I think I may end up using it myself. Take it away, Nona.
I use Google Street View a lot. I have a terrible—no, make that nonexistent—sense of direction. If I need to be somewhere I’m not familiar with, I always pop onto Google Maps and click the little orange man in the bottom right corner, and he soon shows me what that building or house looks like from the road.
But Google Street View also has an incredibly useful role to play in the research for my Jason Davey Mystery series, whose stories are mostly set in England.
I was born in London, and I’ve been back many times. I know the city reasonably well—though I have to admit that many of my long-term memories are, by now, almost 50 years old! I’ve used Google Street View to verify and update a lot of those memories when it comes to describing locations that my hero, Jason, visits and inhabits during the course of his investigations.
Where Street View really proved its usefulness is with my current novel, Ticket to Ride. In this book, Jason is touring England with his mother’s band, Figgis Green. The story covers six different locations: Leeds, Lincoln, Norwich, Cambridge, Oxford and Tunbridge Wells.
A lot of people have remarked about how authentic my Jason stories sound, and how they’re convinced that I used to play in or manage a rock band, and that I’m completely familiar with all of the places that I’m writing about. But guess what…I’ve only ever been to Cambridge (briefly). And it was a very long time ago. Ticket to Ride is written in the first person, through Jason’s eyes, and everything Jason sees—everything he comments on and describes—is completely sourced through Google Street View’s magical lens.
So when Jason takes a walk through Lincoln, and visits the famous Cathedral, I’ve been there, for the first time, along with him, familiarizing myself with the High Bridge and the coffee shop where he stops for a snack. And when Jason and his mum have lunch In the Refectory at Norwich Cathedral and Jason runs outside to try and chase down the woman who handed him a threatening note…Google Street View. The parking lot in Norwich where all of the tour bus tires are flattened…yup. You guessed it. And Oxford…New College Lane…St Helens Passage (where a very significant murder takes place in Ticket to Ride)…Google Street View was my very best friend.
I suppose this exposes me as a bit of a fraud when it comes to familiarity with the places I’m writing about in my stories. On the other hand—with the internet, we have access to technologies that were never available to us in the good old days. And if my imagination is good enough to translate that technology into a believable narrative…I wonder what difference it really makes?
Hi Michael and Judy!
The historical views are still there 🙂
I always consult Street View using my computer, so these are the web-based instructions (using Firefox as my browser):
When you click on the little orange man, you get blue highlighted streets.
When you click on a place on a blue highlighted street, there’s a little black box that appears in the top left corner of your screen which identifies the address you’re looking at.
At the bottom of that little black box there’s a note that tells you it’s Street View and whatever the month and year is, that the picture was taken, ie Feb 2021.
If you click in that area, you’ll get a dropdown picture with a horizontal timeline that has dots on it that you can click, to get previous versions of the same view, with the date identified.
Hope this helps!
That’s fascinating, Winona, I will have to test that out.
I love revisiting places I know and seeing what they looked like in the past. I’m not sure how long Google has been doing Street View but they’ve captured some fascinating changes over the years.
Judy and Winona, thanks for spotlighting Street View. With luck, more users engaged with it will keep the function available.
It was so disappointing when Google discontinued the support of Google Cardboard — an inexpensive virtual reality viewer (made of cardboard!) that would plug into Street View. I had 360-degree virtual vacations in Antarctica, Mount Fuji in Japan, Isak Dinesin’s Ngong Hills, all those tire, uh tyre, places in Kinshasa, and places I’d lived that I wanted to revisit. Apparently, not enough people used Cardboard to justify keeping it available.
For writing, even if you don’t set a story in a named-place, you can always take IRL details to use in fictional settings. Only you know that your Blues Avenue is really 12th and Vine in a real city. 🙂
Thanks again for spotlighting Street View — a lifesaver for us who are directionally challenged and who need a preview of our destination.
Thanks for your feedback, Valerie!
Valerie – I didn’t even know about Cardboard! Amazing!
Yes, I know what you mean about fictitious settings as opposed to RL ones… I did just that with my previous novel, Lost Time, which was set in a fictitious seaside town on the south coast of England, Stoneford. I originally created Stoneford for my three time travel / romance novels. I loved it so much, I brought it back as the base for Figgis Green while they rehearse to go on tour in Lost Time. I based Stoneford on a RL English town, Milford-on-Sea, and I went there often on Street View to re-imagine it for my novels 🙂
Winona, I discovered this magical time traveling in street view just a couple of weeks ago… but when I went back to try it again I was TOTALLY unable to find the keyhole to open the door to it! There’s no “time slider” for street view that I can see, and in any event, my memory is telling me it had more to do with my trackball or arrow keys or somesuch. Can you describe what needs to be done to jog my memory?
Thanks for stopping by, Michael. I hope Winona can answer your question (for me as well).
Yes, Google Street view must be a godsend for you. I’ve not yet written anything in the present. My books are either in the past or in a fantasy world, so I’ve not needed this kind of research.
I have used Street view when visiting a new place, though. Very useful.
Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to comment Vivienne.
Thanks so much for featuring me today, Judy – and hello Carolanne! My deepest darkest research secrets revealed LOL. I’ve been using Google Street View for years for other things besides my writing research, but I have to say, it’s one of the most useful tools out there. And – there’s another neat feature which I didn’t mention – you can go back in time and see what a particular street view looked like in previous years – the years depend on when the Google cameras captured the images.
Thanks so much for sharing my deep dark research secret, Judy! LOL. The Street View feature also has a neat little “history” where you can go back and see what the same view looked like at certain points in the past. It all depends on when the Google cameras captured those images. 🙂
Thanks so much Judy and Winona for sharing another way technology helps writers (if they’re savvy enough to figure out how to use it.
I found it interesting, Carolanne! I am also directionally challenged 🙂
You’re very welcome Caroline! I’m actually really surprised more people don’t know about it. It’s one of the most useful things I rely on for my writing 🙂
Apologies – Carolanne! (I’m so sorry) – I only just woke up and I haven’t had my coffee yet (grrr)