page_title: Google Street View in Europe
section_title: Development
hierarchical_section_title: Google Street View in Europe / Development
caption_attribution_description: English: Google street view camera visits Peak District Having popped in to the Dog and Partridge at Thorpe (near Dovedale) for refreshment, we spotted the Google Street View camera car parked up in the car park. Does it snap the sheep and cows over the hedges? Anyway - tit for tat!
context_page_description: In Europe, Google Street View began on 2 July 2008 with the route of Tour de France being covered in parts of France and Italy. The service has since expanded to many European countries, while at the same time has been controversial in some countries laws and privacy concerns.
context_section_description: Early on, soon following the original introduction of Street View in the United States, there was talk of bringing the feature to Europe as well, but there were concerns over the legality of the feature due to stricter laws in most European countries than those of the United States regarding photography.
  The first views anywhere outside the United States were introduced on July 2, 2008, when the Tour de France route was added. Nineteen camera icons, each indicating part of a French city or town and Cuneo, Italy, were included.
  On October 14, 2008, camera icons were introduced in six French cities, Lille, Lyon, Marseille, Nice, Paris and Toulouse. At the same time, all other icons that had been introduced in France on July 2, as well as the one in Cuneo, Italy, were removed, representing the first time in Street View's history that a camera icon that once marked a place was removed. However, the amount of coverage that France had since July 2 was not diminished.
  On October 27, 2008, four Spanish metropolitan areas were added to the list of growing street view locations in Europe: Madrid, Barcelona, Seville and Valencia.
  On October 29, 2008, Italy received four camera icons for the localities of Florence, Milan, Rome and Lake Como.
  On March 18, 2009, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands were added. In the case of Great Britain, only major centres were uploaded and even coverage of those city centres was incomplete. For example, Edinburgh was missing Street View images of two of its key thoroughfares: Princes Street and the Royal Mile (although portions of both were visible from adjoining streets that had been imaged).
  In May 2009, Google Germany released a list of German cities that were to be scanned or rescanned in May and June 2009.
  On August 18, 2009, areas in Switzerland and Portugal were added.
  On October 7, 2009, parts of the Czech Republic were added.
  On November 9, 2009, more locations in the Netherlands and Spain were added.
  On December 2, 2009, more locations in France and Italy were added as well as various tourist sites in England.
  On January 20, 2010, Sweden and Denmark were added, as well as more locations in the United Kingdom, Italy (7 regions are fully covered), Portugal, the Czech Republic (mostly Prague), and the Netherlands.
  On February 9, 2010, Norway and Finland were added, with coverage of much of southern Norway and most of Finland. Imagery was updated for parts of the UK as well.
  On March 11, 2010, 95% of the United Kingdom's roads, both rural and urban, covering a total of approximately 238,000 miles, were added. More locations in the Netherlands were also added.
  On April 15, 2010, some major UK theme parks were added including Alton Towers, Thorpe Park, Chessington World of Adventures, and Legoland Windsor, as well as the Sea Life Centre in Weymouth.
  In May 2010, Google Street View Cars and Trikes were seen in Croatian cities and towns such as Pula, Split, Dubrovnik, and the capital, Zagreb. This brings a Street View September dream to both Croatia and Andorra available.
  In August 2010, Google Street View Cars were photographing Jersey, Guernsey and Alderney as well as Slovakia. Also, ten Street View cars were delivered to the Latvian capital Riga.
  On September 30, 2010, the Republic of Ireland was added.
  On December 8, 2010, parts of Romania were added. More locations in the Netherlands, Denmark, and Norway were also added.
  On February 1, 2011, Street Views were added of several art museums across Europe, including the Palace of Versailles, the State Hermitage Museum, the Uffizi Gallery and Tate Britain.
  In October 2011, the Bernina Railway between St. Moritz and Tirano was photographed and was added to Street View in early 2012. Bernina Railway is part of the Rhaetian Railway and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
  On November 23, 2011, Street View became available for almost all of Belgium. While Street View content had been recorded earlier, privacy issues kept Google from making it available to the public.
  On February 22, 2012, Street View became available for 3 major cities in Russia: St. Pete
caption: Google Street View camera spotted in Thorpe (near Dovedale) Peak District.
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