List of London Monopoly locations

The locations on the standard British version of the board game Monopoly are set in London and were selected in 1935 by Victor Watson, managing director of John Waddington Limited. Watson became interested in the board game after his son Norman had tried the Parker Brothers original US version and recommended the company produce a board for the domestic market.[1][2] He took his secretary Marjory Phillips on a day-trip from the head offices in Leeds to London and the pair looked for suitable locations to use.[3]

A standard British Monopoly board, featuring locations in London

The London version of the game was successful, and in 1936 it was exported to Continental Europe, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa,[4] becoming the de facto standard board in the British Commonwealth.[5] It became such a success in the UK that Waddingtons ran Monopoly competitions in locations depicted on the board; one such contest was held on platforms 3 and 4 of Fenchurch Street station.[6] The resulting board has been perennially popular around the world and the chosen locations have become familiar to millions.[7] Tourists from as far as Canada, Singapore and Saudi Arabia have been known to visit specific locations in London because of their presence on the Monopoly board.[5] In 2003, Watson's grandson (also called Victor Watson) unveiled a plaque at what is now a branch of The Co-operative Bank, the original location of the Angel, Islington, to commemorate the elder Watson's contribution to British popular culture.[8][9]

The set has been celebrated by the Monopoly pub crawl, which attempts to visit all the locations on the board and have a drink at a pub in each one.[10][11] The relative wealth of the various places has changed slightly. Whitechapel Road is now the cheapest (as opposed to Old Kent Road) but Mayfair remains the most expensive; in 2016 an estimate by loan provider West One showed the average house price on each was £590,000 and £3,150,000 respectively.[12]

Locations

The final list mixes well-known landmarks with relatively obscure locations. There appears to be no specific motivation for how they were chosen; when the travel writer Tim Moore searched the Waddingtons' company archives he did not uncover any relevant documentation.[13]

The light blue set are all part of the London Inner Ring Road, this section of which opened in 1756 as the New Road. From west to east the road runs as Euston Road to King's Cross, then Pentonville Road to the Angel, Islington.[14] The three streets in the pink (or purple) set all converge at Trafalgar Square,[15][16] and the red set are all adjacent to each other as part of the A4 road, a major road running west from Central London.[17] The orange set is related to locations dealing with the police and law.[18] The yellow set has an entertainment and nightlife-based theme; Leicester Square is known for cinemas and theatres, Coventry Street for clubs and restaurants, and Piccadilly for hotels.[19] The streets in the green set have a background in retail and commercial properties.[20]

The stations were the four London termini of the London and North Eastern Railway, principally King's Cross, which served Waddingtons' home town of Leeds. Original Monopoly boards manufactured before the Transport Act 1947 and the nationalisation of the railways use this name on each title deed card; later boards showed "British Railways" instead.[21]

Some elements of the US board were unchanged, leading to apparent idiosyncrasies. The police officer on Go To Jail is wearing a New York City Police Department hat, not a Metropolitan Police helmet, while the car on Free Parking has a Whitewall spare tyre, which was uncommon in the UK. The term Community Chest was a welfare support system present in the Great Depression and has not been used in Britain.[22]

London Monopoly board layout

Free Parking	Strand £220	Chance ?	Fleet Street £220	Trafalgar Square £240	Fenchurch Street station £200	Leicester Square £260	Coventry Street £260	Water Works £150	Piccadilly £280	Go To Jail
Vine Street £200	MONOPOLY									Regent Street £300
Marlborough Street £180										Oxford Street £300
Community Chest										Community Chest
Bow Street £180										Bond Street £320
Marylebone station £200										Liverpool Street station £200
Northumberland Avenue £160										Chance ?
Whitehall £140										Park Lane £350
Electric Company £150										Super Tax (pay £100)
Pall Mall £140										Mayfair £400
In Jail/Just Visiting	Pentonville Road £120	Euston Road £100	Chance ?	The Angel, Islington £100	King's Cross station £200	Income Tax (pay £200)	Whitechapel Road £60	Community Chest	Old Kent Road £60	Collect £200 salary as you pass GO

Note: the table excludes the non-specific "Go", "Jail", "Electric Company", "Free Parking", "Water Works" and "Go To Jail" squares. Chance and Community Chest squares are also omitted.

	Colour	Image	Name	Value	House price (game)	House price (2016)[12]	Location	Notes
	Brown[lower-alpha 1]		Old Kent Road	£60	£30	£813,000	SE1 SE14	The only location south of the River Thames; also the only one both outside and more than one tube stop away from the Circle line.[24]
			Whitechapel Road	£60	£30	£590,000	E1
	Station		King's Cross station	£200	N/A	£782,000	NW1	Principal services: Glasgow Central, Edinburgh Waverley, Sunderland, Newcastle, York, Leeds
	Light blue		The Angel, Islington	£100	£50	£866,000	N1	The Angel is a former pub, not a street. It was a Lyons Corner House in 1935 and is reportedly where Watson and Phillips stopped for lunch.[25]
			Euston Road	£100	£50	£1,080,000	W1 NW1
			Pentonville Road	£120	£60	£866,000	N1
	Pink		Pall Mall	£140	£70	£1,380,000	SW1
			Whitehall	£140	£70	£1,390,000	SW1
			Northumberland Avenue	£160	£80	£1,280,000	SW1
	Station		Marylebone station	£200	N/A	£1,100,000	NW1	Principal services: Birmingham Snow Hill, Oxford, Sheffield Victoria (historic)
	Orange		Bow Street	£180	£90	£1,280,000	WC2
			Great Marlborough Street (listed as Marlborough Street)	£180	£90	£2,480,000	W1	There is no actual Marlborough Street in this part of London; the square on the board was mis-named after the Marlborough Street Magistrates Court.[26]
			Vine Street	£200	£100	£1,700,000	W1	The shortest street on the board; it is 70 feet (21 m) long. Since Vine Street has no pubs, a typical Monopoly pub crawl visits the connecting Swallow Street instead.[27]
	Red		Strand	£220	£110	£2,160,000	WC2
			Fleet Street	£220	£110	£1,080,000	EC4
			Trafalgar Square	£240	£120	£1,280,000	WC2
	Station		Fenchurch Street station	£200	N/A	£1,430,000	EC3	Principal services: Southend Central
	Yellow		Leicester Square	£260	£130	£1,280,000	WC2
			Coventry Street	£260	£130	£1,900,000	W1
			Piccadilly	£280	£140	£2,000,000	W1
	Green		Regent Street	£300	£150	£1,700,000	W1
			Oxford Street	£300	£150	£1,300,000	W1
			Bond Street	£320	£160	£806,000	W1	There is no actual Bond Street; it is split into New Bond Street to the north and Old Bond Street to the south.[28]
	Station		Liverpool Street station	£200	N/A	£784,000	EC2	Principal services: Norwich, Cambridge, Stansted Airport, Southend Victoria
	Dark blue		Park Lane	£350	£175	£1,700,000	W1
			Mayfair	£400	£200	£3,150,000	W1	Not a street, but a location in London (between Piccadilly, Regent Street, Oxford Street and Park Lane). The most expensive square on the board, and in reality.[29]

References

Notes

1. Original British Monopoly boards have Old Kent Road and Whitechapel Road in a dark purple group, rather than brown.[23]

Citations

1. Moore 2003, pp. 24–25.
2. Orbanes 2007, p. 85.
3. Humphreys 2010, p. 90.
4. Orbanes 2007, pp. 85–86.
5. Moore 2003, pp. 9–10.
6. Moore 2003, p. 7.
7. Brown, Matt (9 December 2016). "The Real Life Monopoly Board". Londonist. Retrieved 28 March 2017.
8. "Victor Watson". The Times. 2 March 2015. Retrieved 30 March 2017.
9. "Victor Watson, businessman – obituary". The Daily Telegraph. 8 March 2015. Retrieved 28 March 2017.
10. "The Ultimate Monopoly Pub Crawl". The Daily Telegraph. 5 November 2015. Retrieved 28 March 2017.
11. Noble, Will (30 June 2016). "7 Awesome London Pub Crawls". Londonist. Retrieved 28 March 2017.
12. Colson, Thomas (16 November 2016). "Here's what a British Monopoly board would look like with today's house prices". The Independent. Retrieved 29 March 2017.
13. Moore 2003, p. 24.
14. Moore 2003, p. 210.
15. Moore 2003, p. 45.
16. "City in Pink? Not with Monopoly voters". Manchester Evening News. 26 September 2007. Retrieved 9 November 2018.
17. Moore 2003, p. 184.
18. Moore 2003, p. 131.
19. Moore 2003, p. 86.
20. Moore 2003, p. 241.
21. Moore 2003, p. 159.
22. Moore 2003, pp. 8–9.
23. "Great Britain Monopoly Game : Patent Applied For issue c. 1937". Retrieved 4 April 2017.
24. Moore 2003, p. 307.
25. Moore 2003, p. 44.
26. Moore 2003, p. 135.
27. Moore 2003, p. 148.
28. Weinreb et al. 2008, p. 81.
29. Cox, Hugo (11 November 2016). "Mayfair: London's most expensive "village"". Financial Times. Retrieved 28 March 2017.

Sources

• Humphreys, Rob (2010). The Rough Guide to London. Dorling Kindersley Ltd. ISBN 978-1-848-36278-9.
• Moore, Tim (2003). Do Not Pass Go. Vintage. ISBN 978-0-099-43386-6.
• Orbanes, Philip (2007). Monopoly: The World's Most Famous Game – And How It Got That Way. Da Capo Press. ISBN 978-0-306-81592-8.
• Weinreb, Ben; Hibbert, Christopher; Keay, John; Keay, Julia (2008). The London Encyclopaedia (2nd ed.). Pan Macmillan. ISBN 978-1-405-04924-5.

External links

• London Monopoly Map from Google Maps
• Monopoly Board Pub Crawl website