Google Street View to cover 96 per cent of UK roads from tomorrow

Google will make a further 210,000 miles of UK roads available for your perusal on Street View this Thursday, adding to the 28,000 miles that are currently shown. That means you'll be able to see about 96 per cent of this leafy land's approximately 246,985 miles of thoroughfares.

Twenty-four perfectly respectable UK settlements, as well as Sc**thorpe, enjoyed the Street View treatment when it launched in Blighty in March last year. Now you'll be able to virtually visit cities and hamlets -- at least the ones where the Google Street View car hasn't been forced to beat a speedy retreat by a pitchfork-wielding posse -- from Cornwall to the Shetlands.

Best of all, there'll be no need to physically enter Blackpool, or other crap towns, ever again to fully acquaint yourself with the horror. A further bonus is that the chances of spotting a man sitting in his garden with his trousers around his ankles will rocket. 

In other cartographical news, you can now use Street View to correctly position wayward Google Maps markers that denote where a business is.

Update: The Street View expansion is now live, and looks to be as comprehensive as billed. We've spent all morning being horrified at how grotty our student accommodation really was.