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Google instant street view

(20 Posts)
Auntieflo Tue 20-Aug-19 10:00:22

Someone recently mentioned this , and so I looked up my childhood home!
Instead of being No2.......... Road, it is now No20.
The gates have gone, and the large green space in front, where all the children from the road would gather, now looks so much smaller, and has a path running through the middle.
The old cottages that used to abut our side garden have gone and there are lots of new/er houses.
I don't think I should have looked.
We left that area when we married 58 years ago, so not really surprising.
On looking at our first home, a bungalow, that has been extended, but DH's old home looks much the same.

Doodle Tue 20-Aug-19 10:03:21

I’ve done the same auntieflo. Amazing how things change.

PamelaJ1 Tue 20-Aug-19 10:09:32

Well I looked for the street I lived in when I was 5. It’s gone.

Callistemon Tue 20-Aug-19 10:34:49

The house where I grew up was on the market a while ago so I was able to 'look around' courtesy of the estate agent's website.
It was completely transformed and modernised, rather nice but not at all like the home I remembered.

Anniebach Tue 20-Aug-19 10:39:15

Where I was born and brought up nothing has changed, it was a mining village, rows and rows of streets, only thing changed is the school isn’t there.

Fairiesfolly Tue 20-Aug-19 10:49:22

I looked up mine a few years back, Dad’s carefully tended garden no longer there the Lupins he loved were just now in my mind. A brick wall around the garden and it looks terrible. Good job we all have our memories. Everything looks bigger in memories but as you age and see something you used to frequent or live it seems they have shrunk in size. I can still picture my Dad’s old Ford Anglia on the road outside and I have a picture of me standing on the running step of Aunties Austin A4!

NanKate Tue 20-Aug-19 10:57:23

It was me AuntieF who mentioned Google instant street view. I use it regularly and my niece who lives in Italy found her house too. My first home had a pretty front garden, now it is tarmaced over for cars, what a pity.

Auntieflo Tue 20-Aug-19 11:42:28

Thank you NanKate, for not remembering who posted.
I used to love living in the first house in the road, but sadly it is no longer.
But interesting to see how things are now.

lemongrove Tue 20-Aug-19 12:21:40

You can do the same on Rightmove ( street view)?

Septimia Tue 20-Aug-19 13:16:41

I found the house my great-grandparents lived in. It still looked much the same as in the old photo (c. 1905) that I have except that it has an extension. One of my other great-grandfathers was caretaker in some posh flats in London. They also are still there. Combining genealogy sites and street view is a lovely way to connect with your ancestors.

bikergran Tue 20-Aug-19 18:15:16

oh I love Google street maps..If I cant get to my favourite place Llandudno I just take myself off to the street map and stroll along the prom.

Strange thing is ! its never raining! do google only go on tour when its sunny! hmmm.

annep1 Tue 20-Aug-19 18:45:30

I googled both my son and daughter's addresses and the photo had my son in it washing the car and my daughter walking along the road with the grandchildren. ?whats the chances?

NanKate Tue 20-Aug-19 19:21:16

Septimia that reminds me a boyfriend who I was besotted with at the time who took me to London to meet his relatives who also lived in a posh house. When we got there he took me downstairs to the basement where they lived and they too were caretakers, he had fooled me. He did this time and time again. Thank god I didn’t marry him he would have made my life a misery. He lives with a friend of mine and he has turned into a great fat slob, what did I see in him. I’ve been longing to get that off my chest. Phew !

CanadianGran Tue 20-Aug-19 20:07:19

I used google street view to find locations for old photos. I had an old photo of my Dad on his motorcycle on their honeymoon trip in Brittany. There was a large old building in the background, so i snooped around his village and the next and found out that it was his school. It is a posh private school now, but was run as a secondary school by the church in the late 40's.

I love maps and geography, so Google satelite and street view give me a glimps into locations i've never been before.

Callistemon Tue 20-Aug-19 20:10:03

Goodness annep!

Ours has a stain on the road where the builders must have spilt some liquid concrete when they built our extension!
The road has been resurfaced since then.

Callistemon Tue 20-Aug-19 20:11:19

NanKate you had a lucky escape!!

NanKate Tue 20-Aug-19 21:02:39

Too right Calli. It makes me realise how women can be in a bad relationship and find it hard to escape. Fortunately he finished with me by telling a close male friend of mine before he told me, the b******d. I feel this had been a bit of a therapy session for me. ?

M0nica Tue 20-Aug-19 21:25:58

If you go onto Right Move - House Prices - Sold prices, if the house you are looking at has come on the market and been sold in the last 10 years, there are often all the photos from the estate agent's details saved there. I was able to look inside the house my maternal grandmother lived in nearly 60 years ago. Decor was different, but very little had changed, no extensions or knocking down of interior walls.

Minniemoo Tue 20-Aug-19 21:30:35

I showed my mother the flat she lived in as a child in Twickenham. It was quite sad really. She had vascular dementia and wasn't doing too well but the sight of her childhood home clawed back dim and distant memories for her.

She asked if we could see if her dog, Spider, was looking out of the window.

She was such a lovely lady. In 2 weeks it will be the first
anniversary of her death.

But I was so glad that good old Googlemaps saw her come back to us, albeit briefly.

SalsaQueen Tue 20-Aug-19 21:32:27

The house (and the whole area) I lived in up to the age of 11 was demolished, to make way for new development. The house I lived in from 11 - 20years old is now owned by my brother and his wife.

From 20 - 23, the flat I was in is still there, and the area is horrible.
After that, the house I was in until 1991 is there, but it's not very pleasant round there either. I much prefer where I am (since 1991)