Google Street View goes to Alton Towers

360-degree images of some of Britain’s most popular theme parks have now been made available on Google’s Street View maps.

Alton Towers in Staffordshire, the UK’s largest theme park, is among the attractions to have been featured on Google’s mapping technology. Prospective visitors and keen fans can now virtually navigate through the mock-gothic exterior and check out the scale of the park’s popular rides.

Other theme parks to receive the Google Street View treatment include Legoland, Chessington World of Adventures, Thorpe Park and Sea Life in Weymouth.

The parks were photographed by the Google Trike (a three wheeled bike with camera equipment attached to it) last summer and the imagery was then processed and carefully stitched together.

“As attractions like theme parks have grown to offer so many more rides and activities, it can be difficult to fit everything in without a bit of planning!” remarked Mark Fisher, managing director of theme parks for Merlin Entertainments, which collaborated with Google on the project.

“Street View will add another dimension to the other tools that we offer our visitors to help in this, and we look forward to adding the facility to more of the Merlin attractions in time.”