IVEL VALLEY WALKERS MONOPOLY WALK (part 1) St Pancras to Blackfriars (10 miles) Sunday 30 th July - Bedford mainline railway station (MK40 1DS) to catch the 08:50 train (09:00 from Flitwick) to St Pancras which is due to arrive in London at 09:52 We will meet just inside St Pancras Station on the upper level at the Meeting Place This is part 1 of the walk which covers 20 of the listed properties in Monopoly and some of the other squares on the board-game. The walk will be leisurely with many stops. Walk Synopsis: We walk westward along Euston Road to Marylebone Station; south down Montagu Street to Marble Arch; then into Park Lane and eastward to Berkeley Square for lunch; Afterwards north eastwards along Maddox Street to Liberty London; south down Regent Street to Piccadilly; continuing south to Pall Mall and Trafalgar Square; then loop to the London Eye and back; northwards to Leicester Square; eastwards to Bow Street before dropping into The Strand and Fleet Street and finally Blackfriars Station to return home. Monopoly Board The origins of the Monopoly board game go back to the early 1900s and a game called Landlord's Game, invented by an American Quaker, Lizzie Magie. The original idea of the game was to teach children about the evils of property speculation. Since then several different people have designed various versions of the game. Charles Darrow designed a version with US Atlantic City street names around 1930. He distributed
it under the name Monopoly and eventually sold the rights to Parker Brothers. In the 70s Parker Brothers' rights to Monopoly were disputed. However, Hasbro, Parker Brothers' parent company, still owns the brand. John Waddington secured the rights to make a UK version of the game and the London Monopoly board was created in 1936. The original Atlantic City street names were replaced with London street names. But some puzzling American elements remained. What did 'Community Chest' mean? And why did the parked car look like an American car? The Monopoly game in its original London form has remained pretty much unchanged since 1936. The board, the street names and the pre-inflation prices are as they were then. A few details did change over the years. In the 70s, the houses and hotels were made of plastic instead of wood and the packaging and playing pieces moved with the times. Monopoly Boxes 1950s box 1970s box Early versions of the London game had a small box and the board did not fit inside it. It was very similar to the original American version, except with pound symbols instead of dollars. Later versions from the 1960s had a much larger box which included the board. In the 70s the Monopoly man character was joined by train and money symbols, as above. Monopoly playing pieces The very first US versions did not contain any playing pieces, it was left for the players to improvise, possibly using buttons or coins perhaps? When Parker Brothers took over the manufacture of the game they added metal tokens. The company that supplied them also made the prizes that went into packs of Cracker Jack, a candy flavoured pop-corn snack which was an American tradition since 1893. The tokens in the first Monopoly set: a boot, a warship, a cannon, an iron, a thimble and a top hat were Cracker Jack prizes from that era. The pre-war UK version also used these pieces, although a car replaced the cannon. Wartime playing pieces Wartime restrictions caused the metal tokens to be replaced by cardboard ones. Although some were derived from the pre-war design, they now had more of a UK flavour. The iron was now an electric iron, representing progress. Although taken for granted now, electrical
appliances made a huge difference to peoples' lives in the 1930s. The boat looks like a battleship from the Second World War. The rocking horse was new, and the boot looks a lot smarter than the original, which looked like it might have been fished up from a river. 1950s playing pieces The 1950s tokens are very different. In the age of affluence the cardboard pieces went and there was little correlation with the original pieces. A transport theme runs throughout, but the tokens themselves are loaded with meaning: progress, patriotism and nostalgia. Progress is in the form of the modern car (a Rover 75) and a motorbike. Both celebrate the success of British industry at home and abroad. The bulldozer represents the rebuilding of Britain after the War. The tank is a reminder of our still (relatively) powerful armed forces. It was probably based on the Centurion heavy tank, which did not quite make it off the drawing board to take part in World War Two, but was the mainstay of the British Army in the 1950s. The sailing ship adds a strong dose of nostalgia for a time when Britain ruled the waves. It was modelled on Sir Francis Drake's Golden Hind and coloured gold. The Golden Hind was a potent symbol at the time. Not only was it on the halfpenny coin, but after the Queen's Coronation in 1953, there was a feeling that Britain had entered a new Elizabethan age. It is no co-incidence that Airfix chose the Golden Hind as their first construction kit in 1954. The train represents both progress and nostalgia. It was Sir Nigel Gresley's record breaking Mallard locomotive. In 1938 the Mallard recorded a still unbeaten speed record for a steam locomotive of 126mph. It is painted in the original blue livery used by the pre-nationalised LNER company. The Labour Government nationalised the railways just after the War and painted locomotives in green and black. Many industry figures were against the direction that Labour took the country. The choice of this model and colour scheme looks to be a protest against nationalisation by John Waddington. 1970s pieces Sometime in the 60s the original metal pieces returned. In the 70s the warship became a pleasure boat and the car was updated. Since then many of the tokens have been replaced by animal characters such as a cat; and more recently a dinosaur; a duck; a penguin. Monopoly Property values Mayfair may have always been a steal on the Monopoly board; you can't argue with 400 for the entire area. But what if the famous game of capitalism featured actual rental prices at today s prices how much would you be paying out then?
On the 80th anniversary of the board game, a well-known property website produced a Monopoly board that compared the original prices to the average monthly fee for renting a room in that area. The results were understandably different. When the game was first released in the UK, Old Kent Road and Whitechapel Road were both at the bottom of the ladder - and they still are. However things have changed a little to the streets in the west end of London, so what would the board look like now: The new board game: This is what the Monopoly board would look like today All property prices were taken from Right Move. Prices relate to the average price of all properties, including both houses and flats. The figures were accurate for September 2015.
Streets visited on the Monopoly walk St Pancras Station Euston Road Marylebone Road Baker Street Melcome Street Dorset Square Melcome Place Marylebone Station Great Central Street Marylebone Road Upper Montagu Street Montagu Square > Montagu Street New Quebec Street > Old Quebec Street Oxford Street Park Lane Upper Grosvenor Street Grosvenor Square Carlos Place Mount Street Mayfair Berkeley Square Bruton Lane > Street Bruton Street New Bond Street Maddox Street Great Marlborough Street Carnaby Street Fouberts Place Regent Street Man in Moon Passage Vine Street Piccadilly Place Piccadilly Coventry Street Haymarket Pall Mall Waterloo Place The Mall Horse Guards Road King Charles Street Parliament Street Westminster Bridge The Queens walk Golden Jubilee Bridge Northumberland Avenue Whitehall Place Whitehall Trafalgar Square Charing Cross Road Irving Street Leicester Square Cranbourn Street Garrick Street Floral Street Bow Street Russell Street Catherine Street Aldwych Strand Fleet Street New Bridge Street Blackfriars Station Interesting features on the way Income Tax & Super Tax HMRC Madame Tussauds, Regents Park Sherlock Holmes Paramo Store Monopoly Toilets Swedish Embassy John Lennon plaque Chance Sportsman Casino Marble Arch Hyde Park & Aston Martin Sir Robert Peel plaque US Embassy & Reagan Statue Hamiltons Gallery Fashion Boutiques Estate Agents Rolls Royce & Bugati Banksy Nelson plaque & Sothebys Liberty London & London Palladium Clothing Jack Wills Hamleys Cotswold Outdoors Piccadilly Circus Theatre Royal Duke of York column Buckingham Palace Horse Guards Parade The Treasury HMT Parliament Square Pass GO @ The London Eye Old Scotland Yard Nelsons Column National Gallery Community Chest Chinese Community Centre The Hippodrome Covent Garden & Royal Opera House Go to Jail Old Magistrates Court Duchess Theatre Australia & Indian high commission Royal Courts of Justice