What sets one street apart from the next? A standout building, perhaps, some colourful street art or a picturesque, leafy boulevard vibe. These may make a road memorable, but few things make you notice a street more than slogging up or teetering down sidewalks at extremely sharp angles. We’ve pulled together a list of some of the world’s steepest streets where residents live life on the edge, from vertiginous city-centre thoroughfares to little-visited cliffside tracks.
With lofty ambitions and super-sharp gradients, read on to discover some of the steepest streets in the world...
There are steeper streets to come (this stretch of Lincoln city centre has a gradient of around 29%, which is imposing but not world-beating), but how could we ignore a street quite literally called 'Steep Hill'? This cobbled thoroughfare is found in the capital of the English county of Lincolnshire, and rewards steadfast walkers by finishing at the magnificent Lincoln Cathedral and Lincoln Castle. If you'd rather save your legs for the sites, the Steep Hill Shuttle chugs up the hill throughout the day from Monday to Saturday.
Most ultra-steep roads are found in residential neighbourhoods, where only a few hardy homeowners take the climb each day, but Steep Hill is a local hub with a range of retail outlets and amenities and impressive footfall. The historic street is filled with boutique stores, low-ceilinged tearooms and cosy chocolate shops, and boasts a 12th-century cottage and an old Roman gate. In 2012, the Academy of Urbanism voted Steep Hill Britain's best street.
One of San Francisco’s most famous streets, Lombard Street serves up twisting switchbacks and pretty postcard views. The zig-zag route stretches for just one block in the Russian Hill neighbourhood – but its eight hairpin turns make it one of the most crooked streets in the world. When it was constructed back in 1922, the curved road was intended to reduce the hill’s natural 27% grade, which was too steep for most vehicles to manage. Today it sees around 250 vehicles per hour, and receives around two million visitors a year.
Named after Lombard Street in Philadelphia, the red-brick road is one-way, with traffic flowing downhill only. Signs at the top mandate a speed limit of 5 miles per hour (8km/h) and during busy times drivers have to wait up to 20 minutes to get onto the street's crooked stones. Tourists jamming the street can be a real problem for residents, who struggle to get into their own driveways. To help ease congestion, the local transportation authority has considered charging tourists to drive down the renowned road.
If it wasn't already known for its vertiginous slope, Filbert Street was put on the map by US TV host David Letterman during a visit to San Francisco in 1996. Surrounded by a cheering crowd, Letterman released hundreds of watermelons and balls down the block as part of his late night show. The act cemented Filbert Street’s fame – the hill, which descends 65 feet (20m) and has a maximum grade of just over 31%, would be nicknamed 'Watermelon Hill'.
Visit today and you’re unlikely to spot rolling watermelons. The street – which runs east to west on the northern side of San Francisco – is great for pedestrians, turning into a series of car-free pavements and walkways as it approaches the bay. These include the Filbert Street Steps, which run through the Grace Marchant Garden and descend through a scenic stretch too steep for roads. Glance up and you might spot some of the street’s other residents – a flock of wild parrots.
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For a spot of white-knuckle driving in Los Angeles, Baxter Street has you covered. Buses, fire trucks and other long vehicles occasionally find themselves getting stuck at the top of this road in LA’s Echo Park neighbourhood. And no wonder – the road, namely the stretch between Allessandro and Alvarado, claims a 32% grade. Its steepness draws thrill-seeking skateboarders and cyclists who bomb down the street for YouTube kudos. In 2018, Baxter became a one-way street, helping to cut down on vehicle accidents.
One of the steepest roads in the city, Baxter Street came about in 1872, when surveyors imposed a grid system on hilly terrain. The street later became a testing ground for cars, as manufacturers staged impressive stunts to show off their vehicles’ power. In 1916, a four-wheel-drive truck, heaving with baled hay, groaned its way up the hill, stopping twice for the press to take photos. Baxter Street continues to intimidate drivers to this day, and some locals avoid the road in wet weather.
Eldred Street, in the Highland Park neighbourhood of Los Angeles, is the city's steepest drivable street. It rockets to a 33% grade at its topmost end, climbing 219 feet (67m) in altitude. They don’t make streets like this anymore in LA. Named after Delos W Eldred, who owned a property here around the turn of the 20th century, Eldred Street was built in 1912, well before city officials mandated that no street should have a grade greater than 15%.
Living on Eldred Street presents some interesting challenges for residents. A number of cars have rolled and flipped their way down the road over the years, and, once parked, gravity can make it difficult to open car doors. The gradient is so sheer that the street has its own small-sized rubbish trucks, as normal-sized models would likely tip over when trying to turn around at the top of the street. Mail is not delivered to houses but to a group mailbox situated at the bottom of the hill.
England is not short of mountains and hills, so it’s perhaps no wonder that some of its residents live on drastic inclines. The country’s steepest street is located in Bristol. Bordered by 19th-century terraced houses, Vale Street has an almost 40% gradient through its steepest section. It’s so deeply slanted, in fact, that cars have to park diagonally to avoid rolling down the hill. In winter, ice makes it even more treacherous, with some residents reportedly tying their cars to lamposts.
The sloping street, which has a staircase for pedestrians built into the concrete, was famously visited by street artist Banksy in 2020. He left a mural depicting a woman sneezing so hard that her false teeth have fallen out. The artwork, named Aachoo!!, has since been removed from the house by crane. Every Easter, Vale Street is closed to traffic for an annual egg-rolling contest, in which residents take turns to roll hard-boiled eggs down the slope in a bid to get theirs the furthest.
It may be short in length, but what it lacks in distance Canton Avenue certainly makes up for in steepness. Located in the Beechview neighbourhood a couple of miles south of downtown Pittsburgh, this 600-foot-long (183m) cobbled slope has an average grade of 30% over its length, adding heft to its claim to be the steepest street in the US. One short section even has a grade of 37%. There is no flat ground at the bottom, so traffic is only allowed to go one way up the hill.
Pittsburgh is known for its up-and-down terrain, and Canton Avenue often attracts daring cyclists looking to push their limits. The paved street plays a starring role in Pittsburgh’s annual Dirty Dozen bike race, where participants race for 50 miles (80km) over 13 of the city's steepest hills. Pedalling to the top of this summit is a huge feat, particularly with tricky cobbles beneath your wheels. The street is lined with houses, but residents don’t park on the precipitous slope – there is a car park at the top of the hill.
San Francisco is notorious for its hills – there are 48 with names, and arguably many more without. Depending on your definition of 'hill' and where you set the city limits, some say there are 70, 80 or more. One thing’s for sure – Bradford Street in the Bernal Heights neighbourhood hosts the city's steepest stretch of road, specifically the portion just above Tompkins Avenue. It climbs steadily at a 24% grade – fairly typical for San Francisco – before exploding into a 30-foot (9m) stretch with a 41% grade.
Climbing to the top of this street is no mean feat. In 2010, computer scientist Stephen Von Worley calculated that, on such a slope, gravity alone could accelerate a one-tonne vehicle from zero to 60 in just 7.2 seconds. Scaling the mound on foot is tough too – but locals say that the views are worth the effort. The crest of the hill rewards locals and tourists with a sumptuous span of the San Francisco skyline.
A meandering street in the picturesque town of Harlech was crowned by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s steepest in 2019, credited with a gradient of 37.5% through its steepest stretch. But a surveyor from Baldwin Street in New Zealand, a rival for the title, then visited the Welsh town on a fact-finding mission. He made the case that the best way to measure a street’s gradient was from the centreline rather than at any point along the sides. Guinness agreed and knocked Ffordd Pen Llech’s gradient down to a mere 28.6%.
Still, the road continues to challenge even the fittest hikers and cyclists. As well as its steep street, Harlech is best known for its medieval castle and the uplifting anthem Men of Harlech, which describes the events of a seven-year siege of the castle between 1461 and 1468. Centuries on, its residents battled equally bravely for the steepest street record. Gwyn Headley, who led the campaign to claim the title, said that the demotion by Guinness left him "blinking back the tears".
This stretch of tarmac, located in Dunedin on New Zealand’s South Island, is officially the world’s steepest street. It held the record for more than a decade until June 2019 when Ffordd Pen Llech in Wales clinched the title. Baldwin Street residents appealed and, after a review, the street was reinstated as the world’s steepest in 2020 – with a staggering 35% gradient. The appeal resulted in the Guinness Book of World Records updating its rules on measuring inclines – now a street’s gradient must be measured using the centreline of the road.
The reason for Dunedin’s steepness goes back to when the city was first planned. Urban designers from the UK opted for a grid system with no regard for topography – hence the steep, straight roads you find today. Baldwin Street, which runs to a dead end at Signal Hill, is now popular with tourists visiting the South Island. It has also hosted several bizarre events, including the Baldwin Street Gut Buster where participants had to race up to the top of the road and back. The record is one minute and 56 seconds.
OK, so it’s not technically a residential street, but this rough-and-ready highway in Hawaii reportedly cranks up to an eye-watering 40% gradient or even more in places, so we couldn’t leave it off our list. Located on Hawaii’s Big Island, the super-steep strip of tarmac snakes for 1.4 miles (2.3km) through lush scenery, connecting Waipio Overlook with the Waipio Valley below. It’s so steep – the steepest road of its length in the United States – that it can ruin car brakes on the way down.
The narrow road is only accessible to four-wheel-drive vehicles and it’s considered so dangerous that many car rental companies prohibit travelling on it. Waipio – which translates as ‘curved water’ in the Hawaiian language – isn’t currently accessible to the general public. In 2022, it was closed due to rockfall, deteriorating road conditions and other health and safety concerns. It’s now limited to residents and certain tour companies, although the county is working on a three-year, $6 million (£4.7m) project to make the road safer.
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