In the centre of London, which contains almost all of the properties on the London Monopoly board, there really is no such thing as free parking. The first multi-storey car park in London opened in 1901. It had space for 100 vehicles. I’d love to know how many motor vehicles there actually were in London in 1901. My sketch shows what is thought to be the oldest surviving multi-storey car park building in London. It stands in Wardour Street, which runs from Leicester Square to Oxford Street. It’s now a pub.
Free Parking as a square on the Monopoly Board was inherited from the original Atlantic City board. It’s hard to imagine that Victor Watson would have found many free places to park when he was scouting locations in the mid 1930s. But then Victor, clever boy, took the train into Kings Cross on his visit, and could afford to use taxis.
I can’t afford to use taxis. To be honest, after I moved to Wales, whenever I was visiting London in the 1990’s it was so much cheaper to drive that I would always park the car in a residential street in Ealing, then use public transport until it was time to go back home.
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