FOR tourists visiting Oxford, one of their first destinations is often New College Lane, for a photo in front of the Bridge of Sighs.

Now the atmospheric street has been nominated as one of the 10 most picturesque in the country, as part of the Google Street View Awards.

The awards have been launched to publicise the search engine’s Street View tool, which allows users to ‘travel’ along streets in 25 cities in the UK, including Oxford.

If New College Lane wins the award, Google will create a special online Street View Tour to highlight the key points of interest in the lane itself.

Other categories people can vote for include Britain’s Best Fashion Street and Britain’s Best Foodie Street. The winners will be announced next month.

Tony Joyce, chairman of Oxford Civic Society, said: “It would be great if New College Lane won this award.

“The Bridge of Sighs is an iconic Oxford landmark and it’s one of the first places tourists and visitors go for a photograph.

“The bridge is functional, because it joins two parts of Hertford College, but it’s also a beautiful piece of architecture and one of the best-known sights in Oxford.”

Hertford Bridge is better known as the Bridge of Sighs because of its supposed similarity to the Bridge of Sighs in the Italian city of Venice.

The Oxford structure links the old and new quadrangles of Hertford College. It was completed in 1914.

Mr Joyce said: “Tourists who come to see the Bodleian and the Sheldonian Library, off Broad Street, usually take in the Bridge of Sighs too.

“As you go further down New College Lane, it still has the atmosphere of a medieval street, and you can imagine Oxford as it was a few hundred years ago. The Bridge of Sighs catches your eye immediately. Thousands of people must have had their photo taken there over the years.”

Ed Parsons, of Google, said: “The awards will showcase some of Britain’s Best Streets and we hope people will get involved and vote online for their favourite.”

Google launched Street View in the UK in April last year, and wants to extend the number of locations it covers.

The other contenders for the title are: Brunswick Square, Hove; Gold Hill, Shaftesbury, Dorset; Royal Crescent, Bath; Chipping Campden High Street, Gloucestershire; The Shambles, York; Grey Street, Newcastle-upon-Tyne; Pen Cei, Aberaeron, Wales; Main Street, Tobermory, Isle of Mull; Broad Street, Ludlow, Shropshire.

Judges for the Most Picturesque Street include TV presenter Julia Bradbury and David Else, lead author of the Lonely Planet Guide to Great Britain.

To vote for your favourite street, go to maps.google.co.uk/beststreets by Sunday, February 28