Google Maps has become a massively useful tool for when we're visiting new cities, driving through an unfamiliar part of town or trying to find the nearest subway station. However, the tool has always been more of an outdoors thing. Sure, it can tell you where you are on the streets of London or how to get to Westfield Shopping Centre, but you're on your own if you plan to spend the day shopping there. At least, until today, you were.
Back in December of last year, Google launched Google Maps 6.0 for Android, which brought indoor maps to shopping malls and airports in the United States. Now UK users of the application are getting the same treatment, Google today announced.
"You'll no longer need to feel clueless when you're at the railway station, trying to figure out where to buy a coffee before you rush to catch your train from platform 11; nor will you feel embarrassed about asking for the lingerie section when you're in the department store - because you'll have all the answers in the palm of your hand," Google's Razia Ahamed writes.
Ahamed says Google has partnered with more than 40 venues in the UK, including train stations to art galleries, department stores and sporting venues, but any business can upload their maps for future inclusions so expect that number to grow. The project also includes several airports around the UK, including London City airport, London Stansted airport, London Luton Airport, Manchester, Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Birmingham.
Check the full list below:
- British Museum
- National Maritime Museum
- Harrods
- National Theater
- Victoria Albert Museum
- Museum of London
- Natural History Museum
- Courtauld Gallery
- National Portrait Gallery
- Victoria Station
- Euston Station
- Kings Cross Station
- Waterloo Station
- London Bridge Station
- Fenchurch Street Station
- Cannon Street Station
- Paddington Station
- Charing Cross Station
- O2 Arena
- Wembley Stadium
- BFI Southbank
- Barbican
- Ricoh Arena
- Somerset House
- John Lewis*
- Debenhams*
- Selfridges*
- House of Fraser*
- One New Change Shopping Mall
- Calbot Circus Shopping Center
- Liverpool Street Station
- St Pancras International
- Peter Jones - Sloan Sq.
*Some locations