Google Earth

[den]

While mucking around with Google Earth, I thought I'd have a look for Griffin Park, the home of Brentford FC and my favourite UK football team. I enterd "brentford, england" into the search and hit enter, as you do. Google Earth zoomed in to Brentford, West London, and... what the hell is that? Just west of Brentford, beside the M4, and a whacking great black rectangle. It's obviously hiding something, but the huge black blank is an enourmous "NOTHING TO SEE HERE MOVE ALONG!" sign.

Now I want to know what's there.

Comments

[hobbitblue.livejournal.com]

Oh! How weird... I looked at it on googlemaps here (http://local.google.com/local?f=q&hl=en&q=windmill+lane&ie=UTF8&ll=51.498351,-0.344954&spn=0.012129,0.029182&om=1) and it seems to be the rest of the lake and an empty field. *Seems to be*, at least. Maybe you found the UK equivalent to Area 51? :)

[arcturax.livejournal.com]

Not sure why they would put that right next to the M4, which is packed with cars. Maybe it's invisible from the road :)

[hobbitblue.livejournal.com]

Maybe it is.. or maybe its got a huge black rectangle blocking the view? :>

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

Giant black billboards? And no one noticed? You pommys are weird.

[hobbitblue.livejournal.com]

Well obviously *I* would notice it, and likely a lot of other folk, its just those weirdos in Brentford have the problem.... *grin duck & run*

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

Have you read The Brentford Trilogy by Robert Rankin? (The Antipope, The Brentford Triangle, East Of Ealing, The Sprouts Of Wrath, The Brentford Chaistore Massacre) I'd be surprised if the locals noticed ANYTHING unusual.

Also, I think the Black Monolith is covering the little blank corner on the map across the lane from the lake, between the lane and the rail line.

[damienps.livejournal.com]

Is Hobbitblue middle earth erotica for Bilbo et al? :)

[weyrdbird.livejournal.com]

Maybe it represents something along the lines of Watford Gap:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watford_Gap. Or mauybe it's the British Rectangle to go along with the Bermuda Triangle:D. Keep your eyes on the skies!

[klishnor.livejournal.com]

Britain is full of places that everyone knows are there, but don't appear on any maps. US airforce bases (and some of our own brand) for example. there's one near Bolton Abbey (North East of Colne, but in West Yorkshire) that looks like someone has been growing mutant mushrooms, it has so many and they're so large that the thing must be visible from Mars, but it's "not there" :)

[atara.livejournal.com]

There is lots of interesting stuff to see on Google Earth. Have you seen this? (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/10/14/google_earth_competition_results/)

I especially like the areas in Africa - just some shanty town in the middle of nowhere - which is imaged at insane resolution (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/10/14/google_earth_competition_results/page11.html). You can see the people, make out their features, and even find laundry drying on the ground.

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

I wish I'd seen that comp. 8)

If you go to Guam you can see fighters, C130s and a B1 sitting on the ground. Diego Garcia AFB has B52s. Richmond RAAF has a C130+shadow taking off.

[jrrhack.livejournal.com]

It seems like a black film is sticked in the lens when the photo was taken.

[torkell]

Hmm. Looking at other sites like Windows Live Local shows the full park, so it's probably a gap in whatever data Google's using. Maybe the satellite coverage missed a spot? The rectangle is slightly rotated as well.