Google Maps API RadarSearch not working for London

Question

If I go to the following location:

https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/place/radarsearch/json?location=51.5112139,-0.1198244&types=lodging&radius=3200&sensor=false&key=yourKey

I get the error:

{
    "debug_info" : [],
    "html_attributions" : [],
    "results" : [],
    "status" : "UNKNOWN_ERROR"
}

Is there any reason for this?

When I lookup Bristol(51.454513,-2.58791), Ipswitch(52.056736,1.14822) or Edinburgh(55.953252,-3.188267) I get a normal JSON file back full of data.

Answer 1

I don't know how Google works internally.

Unknown error simply means to me that "We have an error with your request, and we don't want you to know what the exact error is". Most of time, it is from the internal exception handling process.

Honestly, I don't know what happens in Google.

However, if you change your radius from 3500 meter to 2000 meter, it works fine

https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/place/radarsearch/json?location=51.5112139,-0.11982439999997041&types=lodging&radius=2100&sensor=false&key=key

My guess is there are too many results, and Google cannot handle that much.