Even the most directionally-challenged person should be able to find their way on this street just named the world’s shortest.
Ebenezer Place was first declared a street in 1887 and the Guinness Book of Records has declared it is the shortest in the world.
The street, in Caithness in Scotland, only has one address and is just 6ft9in (2.06m) long – meaning the world’s tallest person would be longer if they lay down.
Ebenezer Place originated in 1883, when 1 Ebenezer Place was constructed.
The building’s owner had to display a name on the shortest side of the hotel, which is now No 1 Bistro, part of Mackays Hotel, after the council deemed the short edge of the hotel a new street.
Thus, Ebenezer Place was born, and it became an official street four years later.
Murray Lamont, current owner of the hotel, said when visitors first see the name Ebenezer, they think of the Charles Dickens character Ebenezer Scrooge from A Christmas Carol.
But Murray said the original owner, Alexander Sinclair, was a religious man, and Ebenezer is a biblical name and has Hebrew origins meaning ‘stone of the help’.
The building has always been a hotel, but it has had a string of different names before it became Mackays.
It also had a dry spell when, under the Temperance (Scotland) Act of 1913, which was a UK parliament act that allowed voters in small areas of Scotland to decide whether to prohibit alcohol in their area, the people of Wick decided to stop drinking.
Between 1922, when the residents cast their votes, and 1947, the town was officially boozeless with no alcohol licences permitted within the Royal Burgh.
Ebenezer Place entered the Guinness Book of Records after Murray submitted documents proving the size and validity of the street.
The book’s editor-in-chief apparently then travelled 50 hours just to see the street for himself.
And it’s a bit of a tourist destination, with Murray explaining: ‘Every few minutes we see people standing in there taking a photo, all day and into the night.’
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