![]() Part of the Hidden Garden Steps, one of 300 stairways of San Francisco Filbert Steps, Telegraph Hill When you walk up either stairway, pay attention to the planted areas beside the steps, carefully tended with native Californian plants chosen to attract birds and butterflies (I spotted a humming bird on the way up). Like the Tiled Steps the Hidden Garden Steps have a mosaic pattern, this time with a theme of gardens and nature. These are less well known than the 16th Avenue Tiled Steps, and I would have missed them altogether if it hadn’t been for the friendly advice from a man on the bus. In among the grand design is a wealth of tiny detail, with some unexpected elements, like a cupcake or a slice of cheese.įurther along 16th Avenue are the Hidden Garden Steps, between Kirkham Street and Lawton Street. The 163 steps form a vibrant, multi-coloured tapestry of sky, earth and sea, incorporating sun, moon and stars, animals and plants. ![]() Pinnable image of the 16th Avenue Tiled Stepsįrom above the Tiled Steps look like an unremarkable concrete staircase, but approach from the bottom, or look back as you walk down, and you will see an astonishing mosaic. There are a few different stairways here, but the ones I wanted to see were the 16th Avenue Tiled Steps, which run from 16th Avenue/Moraga Street towards 15th Avenue (this is part way up the hill: there is more climbing to do if you want the view from the top). Unusually, there is a slight deviation from the grid pattern as the streets swirl around the appropriately named Grandview Park, in San Francisco’s Inner Sunset. For the tourist, many of them have the added benefit of leading to spectacular views. Most of them are uninspiring, but some are pleasant walks in themselves, or have their own individual features. There are reputedly 300 stairways in the city, providing shortcuts between streets at different levels, or leading to otherwise inaccessible peaks. Another solution was the building of pedestrian stairways. San Francisco’s famous cable cars were one response to the issue. Some of the hills were so steep that access was impossible in the early days, even with horse-drawn carriages. This resulted in some very steep streets, causing problems for the people who lived and worked there. Yet the city’s early planners and developers chose to lay out the roads in a grid pattern, paying no heed to contours. San Francisco is built on 49 hills – not just ordinary slopes, but tall steep inclines.
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