News

This clever map tool will tell you facts about basically any street or building

Forget taking overpriced city tours – explore your local area with this very addictive website instead

Sophie Dickinson
Written by
Sophie Dickinson
Freelance contributor
map of Central London and the Thames
Photograph: Shutterstock
Advertising

Good news, fellow curious-but-impatient people. Discovering the hidden history of your local area just got a lot easier. All you need to do is tap the ‘get current position’ button on this website and it’ll bring up loads of relevant Wikipedia articles about where you live. 

I’m sat in my unremarkable flat in north London right now, but the ‘Wikipedia Around’ tool has unearthed an article about a pretty spooky-looking Victorian school just around the corner. I’d never heard of it, and going on the Wikipedia page alone, it sounds definitely haunted.

There’s something extremely exciting about finding this stuff out. It feels like you’ve cheated the system. No, I’m not going to get led around on a dodgy, overpriced haunted London tour – I can just flash up this website and explore any part of town I like. Turns out there are the remains of an old railway station just over there: just the ticket for my next daily coffee wander.

It’s not just useful for historical stuff, either. Because the info is drawn from Wikipedia, literally anything that has a page on the online encyclopedia will pop up. That could mean people of note, cool restaurants, or general trivia for impressing your family next time they come over. Proper useful.

Want to explore your local area? Play around with the ‘Wikipedia Around’ tool here.

You may also like
You may also like
Advertising