2019-06-03

[public] 2.41M views, 105K likes, 594 dislikes audio only

Tom Scott

Baldwin Street in Dunedin, New Zealand, has the Guinness World Record for "steepest paved road over a continuous distance of more than ten metres". Which is enough to bring in quite a few tourists. What's the history? And what counts as "steepest street"?

Thanks to Mayor Dave Cull and to Gary Blackman. You can see some of Gary Blackman's photography in Te Papa's collection: https://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/agent/222

And an interview with him: https://www.odt.co.nz/entertainment/arts/blackman-still-finding-out-what-camera-will-take

Updates:

In November 2022, Gary Blackman passed away: his obituary, and many of his photographs, can be found here. https://blog.tepapa.govt.nz/2022/12/02/gary-blackman-photographer-1929-2022/

In 2019, the Welsh street took the record: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-48992331 -- but in April 2020, the New Zealand street appealed and took the record back: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-52215151

CITATION: von Worley, S. (2010). More Steeps Of San Francisco – A New Steepest Street Is Born. Retrieved from http://www.datapointed.net/2010/02/more-steeps-of-san-francisco/

The Guinness World Record data is here: http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/62907-steepest-street-road

And the Welsh street is referenced here: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/jan/10/bricks-dont-usually-roll-welsh-town-harlech-worlds-steepest-street

Edited by Michelle Martin (@mrsmmartin)

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