The World's Steepest Street

January 25, 2014

The World's Steepest Street

BALDWIN Street, in the New Zealand city of Dunedin, has been listed by the Guinness Book of Records as the Steepest Street in the World. Signposts, guidebooks and the local tourist office are only too keen to trumpet Baldwin Street’s unbelievable steepness.From the junction at the bottom, this straight residential road doesn’t appear so bad. Houses line the pavements and it just looks like another of the city’s unassuming suburban hills. But ride up its gentle lower section and you suddenly realise how steeply Baldwin Street rises.

LIKE 10 metre-long cycle lanes and Birmingham, the savage gradient of Baldwin Street is an accident of city planning. Put simply, much of Dunedin was designed in London during the mid-19th century when New Zealand still belonged to Britain. The result of imposing a grid system on some inaccurate contour maps literally gave rise to the world’s steepest street.So, next time the evils of slavery and repression don’t stand as a substantial enough argument against imperialism, take a ride up Baldwin Street.At its steepest, just over halfway up, the gradient maxes out at one in 2.86.

Alongside, the pedestrian footpath is made up of steps that wouldn’t be out of place on a household staircase.Towards the top-where a gravel road links Baldwin Street to its parallel but less savage neighbours-the gradient visibly eases and the worst of it is over.

At 161 metres, it’s not a long climb by any stretch of the imagination, but the drinking fountain and bench at the top are nonetheless appreciated.Descending back down the hill feels like riding down a ski jump. It’s dead straight, narrow and potentially ill-fated. Just along the main road across the bottom, an old post office sells‘World’s Steepest Street’ trinkets. One part of the upper section has a gradient of 1 in 2.86, which tilts it at an angle of 19 degrees! There is a souvenir shop in the 1914 former Post Office where you can buy a certificate acknowledging your achievement of conquering the world’s steepest street, signed by the mayor.