London Monopoly Board four - Angel, Islington. The property takes its name from an inn - first documented in 1614, called the Angel. The property originally belonged to Clerkenwell Priory. The inn was rebuilt several times. The picture shows the penultimate incarnation, the Angel Hotel. This was demolished in 1902/3 and the current building was put up in its place. This too was called the Angel Hotel, but only until 1921 when it became a Lyons Corner House restaurant. The area still retained the name The Angel, though, and the nearest Underground Railway Station is still called Angel. Waddingtons' Victor Watson, who had acquired the rights to Monopoly for the UK apparently took a weekend in London with his secretary to scout out the locations for the UK licensed board. He was not very familiar with London, nor supposedly a great lover of the city, which accounts for what can sometimes appear to be a rather eccentric choice of properties. My Ealing contemporary Tim Moore - one of my favourite writers - describes this in detail in his wonderful book "Do Not Pass Go". Victor ad his secretary supposedly included the Angel Islington because they took afternoon tea in the Lyon's Corner House and enjoyed a very decent cup of Rosie there.
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