Ebenezer Place – Wick, Scotland - Atlas Obscura

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Ebenezer Place

Wick, Scotland

The world's shortest street was created by an awkwardly placed hotel. 

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The product of a hotel built at the junction of two roads and a town council that was strict about its rules, Ebenezer Place rules as the tiniest stretch of street in the world.

During the 1880s, Mackay’s Hotel was built right at the junction of Wick, Scotland’s Union, and River streets leaving the skinny point of the building and its address in a state of limbo. The town requested that the hotel owner put a sign up on the tip of his establishment that would allow people to navigate the strange intersection and thus the six-foot, nine-inch strip of sidewalk outside the hotel was dubbed 1 Ebenezer Place. The street was made official just a few years later and has remained ever since.

Mackay’s Hotel still sits on the spot, but the door now leads to the hotel’s eatery. No matter the business in residence, Ebenezer Place still holds the Guinness World Record for Shortest Street.

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directly down the hill from wick rail station

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