Europe , Cumbria, UK. Places paved with setts include many streets in
Rome and elsewhere in
Italy (where blocks are called or ), since the technique was first used by
Romans. In Aberdeen (Scotland), and much of Edinburgh's
Old Town and
New Town, a large number of streets retain the original setts.
Silloth on Solway, a seaside town in
Cumbria, still has setts (originally laid in the 19th century) on Eden St and the seafront Criffel Street. Streets paved with setts feature in cycling competitions, including the "Tour of Britain", which visited Silloth on Solway in 2015.
St. Anne, Alderney, the main town of
Alderney in the Channel Islands, has many streets constructed of locally quarried granite setts. They continue to be maintained and replaced today. Streets in
Belgian towns are historically layered with Belgian blocks, both in the centre areas and the outer residential neighbourhoods. However, in recent years, many of them have been progressively replaced by asphalt in order to reduce car noise and improve conditions for commuter cycling. Many streets and roads in Belgium and remote country routes just over the border in northern France are still dominated by setts, with some gaining notoriety through bicycle races such as the
Paris–Roubaix race. Streets in the old part of
Danish towns are also often layered with sett, known as brosten or bridge-stones. To make it easier to bike on, the part of the road meant for bicycles are paved with special stones that are saw-cut on top for smoothness and jet-burned for friction.
Vendersgade in
Copenhagen is the latest
CycleStreet to get jet-burned and saw-cut setts on the part of the road between
Israels Plads and
Torvehallerne to create cohesion between the square and the market area, and make it safe for pedestrians to cross the cyclestreet. In addition to streets, large public squares also employed setts, as seen at
Moscow's
Red Square.
United States , Washington, D.C. In New York City, the
West Village (including the
Meatpacking District),
SoHo, and
TriBeCa neighbourhood retain such streets. The
Holland Tunnel used the blocks extensively and can still be seen in some spots including under pavement of service roads on the New Jersey side. Older sections of
Brooklyn such as
DUMBO and surrounding neighbourhoods also have streets bearing Belgian blocks. In the Dearing Street Historic District of
Athens, Georgia, Finley Street, between Broad Street and
The Tree That Owns Itself, retains Belgian blocks, the only street in the city to be so paved. Germantown Avenue in
Philadelphia, in particular its upper reaches through
Germantown,
Mount Airy and
Chestnut Hill, is notable for being paved with Belgian blocks; repaving projects on this thoroughfare have retained or reintroduced block paving to give additional historic character to these neighbourhoods. Part of this character includes the tracks of the
23 trolley, though the modern tracks are encased in concrete slabs rather than blocks, and the trolley line itself is currently operated by buses. In
Richmond, Virginia, Belgian block streets are particularly common, most notably in
Shockoe Slip. Street cars travelled through the street on tracks that are still visible though the system has been replaced by buses. The
Fells Point neighbourhood of
Baltimore also has Belgian block streets. In many cities besides Richmond and Philadelphia setts have often been used for pavement around street-running
trolley or tram lines in the same manner as
brickwork.
Portland, Oregon, used Belgian block paving extensively in the 19th century, starting near the Willamette River, to stop the streets from washing away in floods. Many streets in older parts of the city are underlain by these blocks, and a few streets in the
Pearl District still feature this kind of pavement. The City of Portland stockpiles these blocks when they are dug up for street or utility repairs or renovation. They have been used between the rails in some of
TriMet's MAX light rail lines to warn automobile drivers that they are driving on light rail right of way. The romantic claim that old Portland "cobbles" were imported as ship's
ballast is incorrect; they are local
basalt, quarried near St. Helens in Oregon. ==Archaeological==