Berkshire Street Mysteriously Appears in Russian

Billing Avenue in the Gorse Ride estate, Finchampstead, bizarrely appears in Russian on Google Maps. Street View labels it as Биллинг авеню and the English name does not show up.

Checks in a fresh browser tab and the Google Maps app confirmed it wasnt a one-off. Satellite imagery shows no wording. The anomaly was spotted on the Construction Map while tracking local works and found at the junction of Gorse Ride South and Billing Avenue. Street View from July last year shows a group of four men, some posing for the cars cameras.

Gorse Ride, dating from the 1970s, is undergoing major redevelopment. Billing Avenue has 44 affordable social homes that are considered no longer fit for purpose. In January 2018 Wokingham Borough Council approved regeneration covering Billing Avenue, Dart Close, Firs Close, Orbit Close and parts of Whittle Close and Gorse Ride South, including rehousing, acquiring owner-occupied properties, demolition and redevelopment, with funding including £28.016 million of affordable-housing Section 106 receipts. Existing council tenants were to be offered a replacement home on the estate on a lifetime assured tenancy with broadly comparable terms.

Work is under way on Gorse Ride Phase 2b, building 90 new energy-efficient homes by Wates Construction Ltd; Street View shows replacement three-to-four-storey homes. The overall regeneration will create 249 new homes, of which 74.3 per cent will be affordable and 64 will be for the open market. Of the affordable homes, 136 will be for social rent and 49 will be for shared ownership.

Google was contacted shortly after the anomaly was discovered at 9.40am on Friday, August 14, but no response has been received so far.

James Aldridge, Local Democracy Reporter