This is an amusing oddity, but the Google satellite views of the dangleway in Greenwich has removed the cables from the cable car.

Initially, I thought maybe a very old series of images, but no, there’s the brand new blocks of flats going up next to the cable car, so the images are recent.

Maybe the cables are missing simply because the image resolution isn’t high enough? Well, maybe, but then we should have the curious sight of the red cable cars floating in mid-air.

But they are missing as well.

In fact, it looks like they’ve been deliberately removed, as you can see one small patch below of the cable floating in the air where the editors missed a bit.

Now the cable car is back where it was some years ago — just the pylons and the stations.

Google has made the cable car lose its cables and its cars.

How very odd.

NEWSLETTER

Be the first to know what's on in London, and the latest news published on ianVisits.

You can unsubscribe at any time from my weekly emails.

Tagged with:
SUPPORT THIS WEBSITE

This website has been running now for over a decade, and while advertising revenue contributes to funding the website, it doesn't cover the costs. That is why I have set up a facility with DonorBox where you can contribute to the costs of the website and time invested in writing and research for the news articles.

It's very similar to the way The Guardian and many smaller websites are now seeking to generate an income in the face of rising costs and declining advertising.

Whether it's a one-off donation or a regular giver, every additional support goes a long way to covering the running costs of this website, and keeping you regularly topped up doses of Londony news and facts.

If you like what you read on here, then please support the website here.

Thank you

8 comments
  1. GT says:

    Would that this memorial to BoJo’s folly & arrogance had actually vanished!
    Flying hazard, too.

    • ianvisits says:

      If you’re flying a plane that close to the ground then the hazard isn’t the cable car, but the aircraft pilot.

  2. Graham says:

    I think this is because the satellite view now uses 3D models, and the cables are too small to be picked up by the algorithm that generates them.

    • ianvisits says:

      Apart from the last photo, where I show a fragment of cable floating in the air — so they aren’t adding the cables, but removing them.

      But that doesn’t explain the missing cable cars themselves anyway.

  3. Kevin says:

    Including airbrushing out the shadows of the gondolas! They did miss one, however, at the Euromix Concrete site 🤓

  4. JP says:

    Don’t know how it’s done, but there is an increasing number of blurred images on this Google tool.
    Perhaps someone was doing something in/on one of the cable-cars that wasn’t meant for the world to see and had it rubbed out, as it were. But only where the wires cross water as there’s eight visible against the roofing, hard-standing of the land, none against the glorious hues of the River Thames or R.V. dock. Gondola spotting, tick☑️

  5. Gressy1971 says:

    I never really understand the hostility to the cable car – going on it is a wonderful experience and more affordable than the London Eye, which really is an eye-sore on London’s skyline. It is true, Boris was a lousy Mayor of London, but I don’t criticise him for the cable car, or for the sadly cancelled Boris Buses which at least give some character to an increasingly uniform world.

  6. Gerry says:

    It’s the Day Of The Triffids – the road traffic and DLR / Jubilee Line trains have also mysteriously disappeared !

    Actually, I suspect that it’s just a side effect of some algorithmic process rather than some labour intensive conspiracy to erase all traces of the Dangleway cables and gondolas.

    Perhaps it’s to do with removal of clouds, helicopters, nude sunbathers etc: maybe two shots are taken a few minutes apart and identical images have to be present in both to appear in the published version?

    Also, by emphasising the permanent infrastructure more than the transient clutter, it makes the results more useful for surveying.

Home >> News >> Miscellaneous