London Monopoly Challenge Park Lane

Park Lane. I don’t know if you’ve ever see the very famous Frost Report Sketch, featuring John Cleese, Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett, where the three of them stand in a line, and bowler hatted John Cleese says of Barker ‘I look down on him because I am upperclass.” Barker then looks a Cleese, then down on Corbett saying “I look up to him, but I look down on him. I am middle class.” Ronnie Corbett then adds “I know my place.” Well, to me Park Lane is like the Ronnie Barker character, ad I don’t know whether I should look up to it because its in the most expensive set on the board or look down on it because it is so clearly a second best to Mayfair. Not a heroic Scott of the Antarctic second, nor a Buzz Aldrin second, either. Park Lane never has a helpful Chance or Community Chest telling players to go to Park Lane. Park Lane’s rent with a hotel might well be £1500, but that’s still a whopping £500 less than Mayfair. And Mayfair’s not even a street – it’s an area!

Park Lane runs from Marble Arch to Hyde Park Corner, and this is where the name derives from. Before this it was called Tyburn Lane. The Tyburn is one of London’s underground river, but as we saw when we visited Oxford Street, Tyburn became synonymous with public executions. I can’t help wondering if it’s the name of Park Lane that decided Victor Watson and his faithful secretary Marjorie to put Park Lane exactly where it is on the board. For where they put Park Lane on the London board there is Park Place on the original Atlantic City Board. It must have seemed like a bit of a know brainer, especially considering that when they were out scouting Park Lane was already one of the most prestigious locations in London. The fact that it was home to the very swish newly built Dorchester Hotel can only have added to the attraction.

Both of the properties in the purple set have had their names used for cigarette brands. While we’re on the subject of Park Lane trivia, being part of London’s inner ring road, along with Pentonville Road Park Lane marks a boundary of London’s inner city congestion charge zone. Since the start of the 20^th century Park Lane has had a rather uncomfortable relationship with motorised traffic. It officially reached saturation point in 1950s, so work was carried out to widen the road between 1960 – 63 so hat has 3 lanes each way separated by a central reservation. This time also saw the building of the largest underground car park in London, underneath Park Lane and Hyde Park. I remember my father in the early 70s thinking about parking there and taking us to see the Christmas lights, seeing how much the car park cost, changing his mind and driving us all home again. Well, as he informed us, it was the thought that counts.

Park Lane saw its ties with the worldwide game of Monopoly when the Park Lane Hotel hosted the 1988 world Monopoly Championships. Bearing in mind how long a game can take I wonder if it was finished in time for the 1989 championships. In the Sherlock Holmes short story “The Adventure of the Empty House” the house in question is located in Park Lane. Now that’s one achievement where Park Lane did come first. Mayfair has not held one yet!