In April 2024 I made a drawing based on an old photograph of a horse bus in the Old Kent Road. It set me off on a train of thought which led to me challenging myself to make drawings of every property, station and utility on the traditional London Monopoly Board. I have allowed myself to include sketches I've made in the past as well as new ones. So this is where I am at the moment:-
1) Old Kent Road
The Old Kent Road is the only property south of the River Thames. It goes through many changes of name, but if you follow it, then it will take you all the way to Canterbury - I know because I cycled it in a day once. It was home to the venerable Thomas a Becket pub, which was on the site where Chaucer and his pilgrims made their first stop on their pilgrimage in The Canterbury Tales.
2) Whitechapel
The name Whitechapel might well make you think of the Whitechapel Murders, the atrocities committed in the area by the individual known as Jack the Ripper. However Whitechapel was also home to the Whitechapel Bell Foundry, one of the oldest commercial businesses in the UK until its 2017 closure. Arguably the 2 most famous bells in the world, Philadelphia's Liberty Bell, and London's Big Ben were both cast in Whitechapel.
3) King's Cross Station
King's Cross is not the oldest Mainline railway terminus in London - Euston just down the road is several years older. It's not the most visually striking - the Grand Midland Hotel which is part of the St. Pancras building right next door steals the attention away from its neighbour. But Kings Cross is a remarkable building. In some ways it's hard to believe that it dates back to 1852. The relative simplicity of the facade, the lack of ornamentation seem to belong to the 1920s or 30s. Having said that the Italianate clocktower between the two huge arched windows does humanise the building a little, and reminds me of a similar feature on Queen Victoria's Osborne House.
Of course, Kings Cross has a permanent place in popular culture, being the station from which the Hogwarts Express departs in the Harry Potter novels from platform 9 3/4 . There is actually a sign for platform 9 three quarters, but you won't find the Hogwarts Express, sadly.
The horse drawn tram on the far right gives us just a little help with dating, although not necessarily as much as you might think. The first horse drawn tram in London was as early as 1861 while the very last horse drawn tram in London ceased in 1915. Like a lot of reference photos I've used in these Monopoly drawings and in other sketches of London, I would date this between the last decade of the 19th century and the first of the 20th.
One of the interesting idiosyncracies of the London Monopoly board is the choice of stations. Kings Cross makes sense and you can also make out a case for Liverpool Street. But Marylebone? And Fenchurch Street ?!? Surely Paddington, Euston and Victoria (or Waterloo) all had a greater claim. Waddingtons' Victor Watson had acquired the rights to Monopoly for the UK after his son, Norman, had acquired an American Monopoly set, and become absolutely hooked on it after spending a weekend playing. He badgered his dad, who ran the business, to acquire the rights to the game outside the USA.
Victor took what I think was a splendid decision, that the only real changes to the game that he would make were to change the names of the properties , and the money involved from dollars to sterling. It only made sense to choose London properties since these must have been better known than those of any other tow or city in the UK. Apparently Victor took a trip to London with his secretary, Marjorie Philips, 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 West London contemporary Tim Moore - one of my favourite writers - describes this in detail in his wonderful book "Do Not Pass Go".Well, Victor Watson was from Leeds, and Waddingtons were a Leeds based company. At the time of his fact finding mission, Leeds was on the London North Eastern Railway (LNER for short). So it seems that Vic just picked the four LNER termini in London at that time.
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. Victor Watson and Marjorie Philips 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.
5) Euston Road
Even today you're not short of significant buildings to draw along Euston Road. It starts at Kings Cross. The name refers to an equestrian statue of George IV erected as a memorial on his death in 1830. So popular was George as a monarch that the statue was removed in 1845, unmourned and unmissed.
As I say, even today there's a lot to choose from - the Grand Midland Hotel above St. Pancras Station, the British Library and Euston Station. I've opted to use something from the back catalogue - as is my prerogative - and so we have my drawing of the Doric Arch outside Euston Station from 1837 - 1961. As I wrote when I first posted this sketch -
The first threat to the arch came in the late 1930s when a radical plan to rebuild the station was drawn up, which would have involved moving the arch at the very least. The second world war put paid to this, however it only turned out to be a stay of execution. Despite the fact that both station and arch were grade II listed, the plan for the current station were put forward in about 1960, and nobody in officialdom showed any appetite whatsoever for moving the arch to a new home. The London County Council balked at the cost, and Transport Minister Ernie Marples said all options for not demolishing the arch had been carefully examined and rejected. This was the same Ernie Marples whose company built motorways – not that he was at all biased, you understand. Pleas from great men such as Sir John Betjeman to be given time to raise the money to meet the cost of removing the arch and storing it until such time as a new home could be found for it were ignored.
Contrary to how it might seem from what I’ve just written, I do appreciate that you cannot keep things just because they have been there a long time. Otherwise we’d all be living in Bronze Age roundhouses. But I do think that there was a very strong case for keeping the Euston Arch and I point my finger at those who made the decision and rushed to demolition, and am happy to say that you have let down the people you were working for and sold all our birthright for a mess of concrete.
7) Jail
Newgate prison was established by King Henry 2nd in 1188. It came to take over part of the original Newgate, a ceremonial fortified gateway leading into the City of London. Amazingly Newgate Jail was still operating right at the start of the 20th century, though it closed in 1902 and was demolished a year later.
Charles Dickens had a thing about prisons. It’s not surprising when you consider that his father John Dickens was imprisoned in the Marshalsea for a period during Dickens’ childhood. The Marshalsea is the backdrop to “Little Dorrit” and other novels he wrote feature episodes in the Fleet Prison and also the Kings Bench Prison. However Newgate recurs throughout his writing, from an early article in “Sketches by Boz” through “Oliver Twist”, right up to “Great Expectations”, arguably his greatest work. His first historical novel “Barnaby Rudge” concerned the Gordon Riots, during which Newgate was attacked and partially destroyed.
Waddingtons (sensibly in my opinion) decided to change as little as possible about the original board, and did very little other than replacing the names on the properties with London locations and the dollar prices with sterling. Free parking used an American jalopy, while the policeman ordering the unlucky player to go to jail looks about as British as the Stars and Stripes or the Statue of Liberty. This is probably why Jail (just visiting) and Go To Jail are spelled thusly rather than the more traditionally British spelling Gaol. Some experts believe that Monopoly certainly helped this Jail spelling become far more commonly used in the UK.
Jail is an example of Victor Watson's approach to the original Monopoly board. Which I think ca be quite neatly summarised as - if it ain't broke, then don't fix it.
8) Pall Mall
Aren’t word derivations fascinating? If your answer is no
then you might want to skip the next few paragraphs.
Our 8th stop on the London Monopoly Board is
Pall Mall. The three properties in this pink set are linked by being
thoroughfares radiating from Trafalgar Square. Whitehall is a major
thoroughfare, Pall Mall and Northumberland Avenue, less so.
Pall Mall takes its name from the Italian game pallamaglio.
The game was in some ways similar to croquet, because it involved hitting balls
with mallets. The literal translation on the Italian is ball-mallet, and it’s
clear to see how the Italian mutated into pall mall, the English name of the
game. Charles II was fond of the game, which was played on a long, narrow rink,
and so he had Pall Mall laid out so that he could stroll over from the nearby
Palace of Whitehall for a leisurely game. Samuel Pepys mentions it in his
diary, where he calls the game pell-mell. Nowadays to do something pell-mell
means in a rushed and disorderly fashion. Sounds like the game would have been
more unruly than croquet.
Pall Mall eventually developed with commercial properties and Gentlemen’s clubs. The name Mall thus became applied to many long, straight
roads containing shops and commercial premises. From there, it’s only a small
hop to applying the name to a building containing shops and outlets.
I used to think that Pall Mall and The Mall were the same
place. No. The Mall is the long, wide road leading from Trafalgar Square to
Buckingham Palace and the idea of developing the road with buildings or hotels
is pretty unthinkable. Maybe the fact that Pall Mall was home to some of London’s
most famous and exclusive Gentlemen’s Clubs appealed to Victor Watson. Then again,
maybe he was influenced by the fact that Pall Mall was, and is, the name of a
well known brand of cigarette. It’s surprising how many properties on a London
Monopoly Board are or have also been the names of cigarette brand. Off the top
of my head, Pall Mall, Strand, Piccadilly, Bond Street, Park Lane and Mayfair
have all been cigarette brands at one time or another. Not to mention Marlboro.
Yes, Marlboro, a cigarette brand which could not be more American if it tried,
was actually named after (Great) Marlborough Street, where the Philip Morris
company had its cigarette factory!
9) The Electric Company
I was tempted to use a picture I sketched of Battersea Power Station a few years ago for the Electric Company. But Bankside is closer to the centre of London, and has a more remarkable story. Before the 21st century, London's Bankside Power Station was the kind of building that Londoners either tried to ignore, or to pretend that it wasn't there. Directly across the Rover Thames from St. Paul's Cathedral, and just a stone's throw from where Shakespeare's Globe Theatre once stood, the Bankside Power Station provided electricity for London from 1891 until 1981, although the current (should you pardon the pun) building only dates back to 1947. Decommissioned in 1981 the future of the building looked very much in doubt until, in 1994 London's Tate Gallery announced that the building would become the permanent home of the Tate Modern Art Gallery. The Tate Modern opened in 2000, and is now one of the most visited buildings in the whole of the UK.
The Tate Modern is one of the largest and most important collections of Modern and Contemporary Art in the world. I have visited it once, but I'm afraid that my visit only served to confirm what I have always suspected - that when you get right down to it I'm a bit of a philistine. Particularly when it comes to abstract art, while I can appreciate skill, and occasionally respond emotionally, when you get right down to it I don't really get it. I'm willing to accept that this is down to my own aesthetic deficiencies. It still doesn't change the fact that I don't get a lot of it though.
I thought I'd use a variety of different coloured fineliners and see what sort of effect I could get with them.
Whitehall
is a thoroughfare connecting Trafalgar Square to the Houses of Parliament in
the Palace of Westminster and to Westminster Bridge. The thoroughfare passes
through some of the area formerly occupied by the royal palace of Whitehall,
hence the name, and was the monarch’s principal residence within what we now
think of as London from the reign of Henry VIII until it burned down in 1698.
It was called the White Hall because of he stone from which it was originally
built.
Nowadays
Whitehall is a term which doesn’t just apply to the Street. Whitehall Palace
was the centre of Government administration from Henry VIII’s time, and this
continued even after the Palace burned down since many Government ministry
headquarters were sited along Whitehall, and some still are. So the word
Whitehall can also refer to government policy and to the Civil Service, who
administer it.
Coming back
to the thoroughfare, there’s lots of notable things associated with it as well
as the Ministry buildings. Whitehall is where the Cenotaph stands, and the
Remembrance Day Ceremony takes place. The entrance to Horseguards Parade is
always flanked by ceremonially dressed members of the Household Cavalry. Dowing
Street, home of the UK Prime Minister, can be accessed from Whitehall, but only
if you have a pass. Just off Whitehall, linking it with Northumberland Avenue,
is a street called Great Scotland Yard, where the original headquarters of the
Metropolitan Police Force were located. Whitehall itself is punctuated with
half a dozen statues and memorials, most of which commemorate figures from the
history of the British Armed Forces.
11) Northumberland Avenue
Northumberland
Avenue is a relatively short thoroughfare which links Trafalgar Square with the
Embankment. It’s one of the youngest streets on the London Monopoly board. Pall
Mall was laid out in the 1660s, and Whitehall was laid out following the burning
down of Whitehall Palace right at the end of the 17th century.
Northumberland Avenue was built between 1874 and 1876. It was built on the site
of the former Northumberland House, the London home of the Percy family, the
Dukes of Northumberland.
It's always
struck me as a continental style Avenue whenever I’ve had cause to frequent it.
Partly this is because although it’s short, it’s also very wide. This was a
method the developers used to get around local building and planning
regulations that stipulated that hotels must not be built taller than the width
of the road they were on. Notable amongst these was the Hotel Metropole, which
still exists, but under another name. Prince Albert Edward, the future King
Edward VII was very fond of it. The building is notable for its striking wedge
shape.
Another
interesting building is a preserved cabmen’s shelter. Laws in London in the 19th
century stipulated that horse-drawn cab rivers could not leave their cab while
it was on a cab stand. The cab shelter fund – which still exists to maintain
the shelters - was established to build shelters for cabmen so that they could
get a hot meal without risking their cabs being stolen, and that they had less
of a risk of freezing to death in the depths of winter. At one time these
distinctive little green buildings were a fairly common sight in London. There
were more than 60 of them. I remember one in Ealing Broadway when I was growing
up in the 70s. That’s gone, although it has been replaced by a new structure
which is obviously inspired by the cabmen’s shelter. There are only 13
remaining now, but each one is a listed building.
12) Marylebone Station
Marylebone Station was the last of the London Railway termini to be built. In many ways it is the poor relation amongst them, having nothing like the grandeur of Kings Cross, St. Pancras, Paddington and the original Euston to name but a few but nevertheless I do have a wee bit of a soft spot for it. One reason is because its the station the Beatles are chased through in their first and best film, A Hard Day’s Night. Another reason is that it was a project pushed through by one of my favourite crusty old Victorian/Edwardian curmudgeons, Sir Edward Watkins.
Sir Edward was chairman of several railways, most notably the Metropolitan Railway, the world’s first Underground railway. Watkin did not like the fact that another of his railways, the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway, had no line into London, and thus lost valuable traffic to the Great Northern from King’s Cross. He eventually obtained permission to extend the MSLR – now called the Great Central Railway – into London, at Marylebone. The station opened to traffic in 1898. The Great Central Railway became part of the London North Eastern Railway in the 1923 rationalisation of most of the railways in Britain into four large companies – the London Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS), the Great Western Railway (GWR), the Southern Railway and the LNER. Which is why Marylebone was chosen by Vic and Marjorie for a Monopoly Station – all four they chose were LNER termini.
By the 1980s Marylebone was a serious candidate for closure. This was due to its quietness compared with other large London stations. This is what has made it so popular with film makers over the las few decades – Marylebone has probably been a named or unnamed location for filming ha any other mainline station in London.
Coming back to the great curmudgeon Edward Watkin, he delayed the building of London’s Circle Line for a good couple of decades just because he didn’t like the chairman of the Metropolitan District Railway – James Forbes. This despite the fact that it would have increased revenue for both railways.
He's probably best remembered for attempting to build London’s answer to the Eiffel Tower on the site where Wembley Stadium now stands. The Tower only reached its first stage before it was found that changes to the original design meat that the legs were unstable. Work was stopped for good shortly before Watkins’ death in 1901 and the whole thing was dynamited and demolished by 1907. Aerial photographs of the building of the original Wembley Stadium in the 1920s clearly show where one of the footings had been on the area where the pitch was laid.
The naming of the street is a little confusing because it’s in the centre of London, and not really near the area of Bow at all. Bow street is actually very close to Covent Garden, the former fruit and veg. market, which is now London’s unofficial capital of street entertainment.
Prior to being included amongst the orange set of properties on the London monopoly board, Bow Street was possibly most famous for being the home of the Bow Street Runners. This was a forerunner of the first police forces, a group of volunteer law enforcement officers founded by the London magistrate and novelist Henry Fielding. They were disbanded soon after the formation of the Metropolitan Police force. All of the properties in the London orange set have connections with the law and law enforcement. Courts were held in the homes of city magistrates on Bow Street – including Henry Fielding – and between 1878 and 1881 the current building which house the Magistrates Court – one of the most famous in England – and Bow Street Police Station was built. The Police Station closed in 1992 and the last case was heard in the court in 2006. The building still stands, but since 2021 the building has housed a hotel – how appropriate! – and a museum of local police History.
14) (Great) Marlborough Street
Marlborough Street.
As a quiz question master I have in the past asked the
question – which street on the traditional London monopoly board does not
actually exist in real life – the answer to which is Marlborough Street. This
is because it has never been called just Marlborough Street, but rather Great
Marlborough Street. A bit of a trick question, but trust me, quizzes are full
of those.
The street is named after John Churchill, the first Duke of
Marlborough, and in the view of Queen Anne, he was pretty great. It was first
laid out in 1704, during her reign. Like Bow Street, Great Marlborough Street
was home to one of the most important Magistrates’ Courts in London. This
closed in 1998.
One of the most remarkable things about the street is that it gave its name to the Marlboro cigarette brand. Makers Philip Morris had a factory on the street at one time, and used an americanised version of the name for a cigarette brand that consciously plays on the image of the rugged, wild western Marlboro Man. I used a modern reference photograph and this scene shows the side entrance of the famous Liberty's store, which stands on the corner of the junction between Great Marlborough Street and Regent Street, itself on the London Monopoly board.
Unlike Bow Street and (Great) Marlborough Street, Vine
Street wasn’t home to a magistrates court. However it was at one time home to
one of the busiest police stations not just in London, but the whole world.
Vine Street itself was named after a pub, the Vine. Its
possible that the pub may have drawn its name from a roman vineyard nearby, but
this is a matter of speculation. The street was laid out in the 1680s. It was
originally longer than it is now, but when Regent Street was built it bisected
Vine Street and led to one end of Vine Street becoming a dead end.
Vine Street Police station was built at umber 10, and had
to be rebuilt after a fire in the 18th century. Vine Street nick, as
it was colloquially known, closed in 1940 and services removed to West London
Police station in Savile Row. Due to a rise in crime the station was reopened
in 1966, then closed for good in 1997 and demolished in 2005. Incidentally Vine
Street is one of the London Monopoly streets without licensed premises, so I’m
informed that the etiquette for a London Monopoly board pub crawl is to take a
drink in one of the hostelries on nearby Swallow Street.
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 may 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’s time to go back home.
In Anglo – Saxon times the River Thames was wider then it
is now. The Strand is not very close to the northern bank of the Thames at all
now, but this is a relatively recent development. At Lundenwic’s height, the
road we call the Strand was right by the shore, hence the name.
King Alfred the Great, in the late 9th century,
ordered people out of Lundenwic and into the old Londinium. However the Strand
remained a important thoroughfare, and retained its name unchanged for well
over a thousand years.
The Strand is part of the main route linking Westminster
with the old City of London. It ends where the medieval City walls once stood.
This was marked by the gateway shown in the sketch, Temple Bar. Designed by Sir
Christopher Wren, the relatively narrow gateways caused increasing traffic
congestion and so it was carefully taken down. It was bought by Lady Meux, the
wife of a brewing magnate, and erected in the grounds of their house, Theobalds
Park. In fact I visited it in Theobald’s Park in 2003 on the day before work
began to deconstruct it and rebuild it in the shadow of St. Paul’s, just off our
next property, Fleet Street.
I used an ink sketch I made of Temple Bar a few weeks ago rather than making a new one. I felt a bit guilty about this so I made a direct watercolour sketch instead
18) Fleet Street
Allow me to indulge myself with a little more Old English.
Fleet derives from the river Fleet, one of London’s lost rivers. The word fleet
derives from the Old English fleot, which has several meanings, one of which is
stream.
The Fleet ran in the open from Hampstead down through
London to join the Thames. Fleet Street was originally called Fleet Bridge
Street, since the road was bisected by the Fleet. By the 1870s the whole course
of the Fleet was covered over.
Fleet Street runs up Ludgate Hill past St. Paul’s
Cathedral. There are many interesting stories about St. Paul’s, and its
destruction in the Great Fire and subsequent rebuilding. Many people have read
Samuel Pepys accounts of the fire, and very informative they are too. However
if you’re interested you should also have a look at John Evelyn’s diary too. I
like the story that Christopher Wren visited the burnt out shell of the old
cathedral and found a broken stone with the word ‘resurgam’ which of course means
I will rise again.
Fleet Street was also the home of the (probably) fictional
Sweeney Todd, the barber who killed his customers and had them baked into pies.
I say probably fictional. There have been some claims he was a real person, but
there’s been nothing I’ve ever seen that would stand up in a court of law.
In the 19th and especially the 20th
centuries Fleet Street became synonymous with the newspaper industry and was
home to most of Britain’s national newspapers. They’ve all moved out to
pastures new now. Although the newspapers have gone, some printers still
remain, maintaining an association with Fleet Street that goes back to 1500,
when Wynkyn de Worde, the apprentice of England’s first ever printer, William
Caxton, first set up his press here.
19) Trafalgar Square
The name Trafalgar Square references the 1805 Battle of
Trafalgar. What is now the square once housed the Royal Mews, until King George
IV moved the mews to Buckingham Palace in the 1820s. John Nash was asked to
develop the site, but he died and work progressed very slowly. In 1830 the site
was going to be called King William IV Square after his accession that year.
Finally in 1835, the 30th anniversary of Trafalgar, it was decided
to name the square Trafalgar Square, and include a memorial to Nelson. One can
guess that the owner of the square, King William must have been enthusiastic, bearing
in mind that he had been a brother officer and a personal friend of Nelson during
his own time in the Navy.
The Square wasn’t opened until 1844. Its most well known feature
is Nelson’s Column, a 145 feet tall Corinthian Column topped with Edward Hodges
Baily’s statue of Nelson. This has become one of London’s most iconic and recognisable
landmarks. The base of the statue is flanked by four pedestals, each bearing a
bronze statue of a lion, sculpted by Sir Edwin Landseer.
Throughout its history Trafalgar Square has see a huge number
of mass gatherings and demonstrations. It became the unofficial focus of London
New Year celebrations, and I remember dancing in the fountains on New Years Eve
in the early 80s very fondly. I remember the 2 hour walk home sopping wet less
fondly. The Square is still home to a large number of pigeons. Up until the 21st
century feeding the pigeons in the square was seen as an essential component of
any visit to London. Then people began to realise the public health risk of a
gathering of 35,000 pigeons in such a small space. Feeding the pigeons has been
banned since the early 2000s.
There are four plinths surrounding the square. Three of
them have permanent statues – George IV, General Charles Napier and General
Henry Havelock. The fourth plinth was unoccupied until the 21st century,
since when it has been used for temporary displays of sculpture by some of the
leading names in contemporary sculpture in the UK and the rest of the world.
Let’s come back to Nelson. In July 2020 protestors in the
city of Bristol pulled down a statue of the 17th/18th
century trader Edward Colston. The statue was supposedly erected by a grateful
city, as a way of memorialising his charitable support of almshouses, churches,
workhouses and schools. The protestors’ argument was that in our modern,
multicultural Britain, glorifying a man who organised and greatly benefited
from the Slave Trade is untenable. To me, that makes sense, bearing in mind that
the city authorities seemed unwilling to even enter into a dialogue on the subject.
This action focused public attention on the question of public memorials to men associated with the slave trade, and Nelson’s Column became the subject of public debate. This is a question which leads to very heated views on all sides. The older generation as a rule don’t even want to discuss it – my mother and stepfather both being examples.
Look, I’m a Londoner myself, and I get an emotional buzz whenever I see an iconic image of the city like the column. But. . . Symbols matter. Images matter, and the messages that they convey matter.
Now, as I understand it Nelson did not own slaves. As far
as I know Nelson did not trade in slaves. Okay. However, he was certainly
opposed to Wilberforce’s campaign to abolish the slave trade, and he seems to
have been very friendly and protective towards the slave owning elite in the West Indies. I’m not saying this in itself means we should convict him and tear
his statue down at once. But I am very much saying it is at least grounds for a
constructive public debate on the subject. If Nelson was as great a hero as his
defenders think he is, then his reputation will survive any amount of public
debate. But if he wasn’t, then we certainly should be discussing it.
There aren’t many London Monopoly Board properties that I
have never visited in real life. In fact Fenchurch Street station is the only
one. Well, I've never been in a waterworks I suppose, so make that two. But let's stick with Liverpool Street for the time being.
The world’s first railway linking two cities, the Liverpool
and Manchester Railway, opened in 1830. The railways reached London in 1836, with
the opening of London Bridge station. By the middle of the 1830s new railways
were booming and would go on booming for 10 years until the crash of 1845.
Everyone wanted a piece of the pie and although the majority of planned railways
in this period were never even built, a large number of companies had their eyes
on London.
Fenchurch Street Station was built in 1841, for the London
and Blackwall Railway. Through acquisitions and mergers it served a number of different
railway companies. When the vast majority of Britain’s railways were
rationalised into four companies in the 1920s,Fenchurch served the LMS (London,
Midland and Scottish Railway) and the LNER (London North Eastern Railway). This
is why it’s included on the London Monopoly board, as an LNER terminus.
Fenchurch Street is the only London terminus which is not
also a London Underground station. In the 90s it was planned to either connect
Fenchurch Street with the Jubilee Line or to extend the Docklands Light Railway
a few hundred yards to Fenchurch Street, which would put it onto the network,
but neither of these plans came to fruition. Fenchurch Street largely connects
the City of London with Essex. The current building dates back to 1854.
So we now move on to the yellow set of properties, the
third most exclusive on the London board. Like the red set, these are linked
geographically but they are also linked thematically as the orange ones are,
being associated with nightlife and entertainment. Well, I wouldn’t know a lot
about nightlife but Mrs. C and I had our first date in the Odeon cinema there. Leicester
Square is very much an entertainment hub nowadays. London’s biggest cinemas are
clustered around the square, and it is the venue for more film premieres than
all other locations in the UK combined. Leicester Square is at the heart of the
‘West End’ of London, the theatre district. It’s also home to many restaurants,
and is noted for Chinese cuisine, bordering as it does on Soho’s ‘Chinatown’.
Like Pall Mall. Leicester Square came into being during the
Restoration period , just a few years later in 1670. It developed around
Leicester House, home of the 2nd Earl of Leicester, Robert Sidney.
For almost a century it was a highly genteel area, amongst whose residents
included Frederick, Prince of Wales, the father of George III. Poor old
Frederick never had much luck. He co-wrote a play which nearly caused a riot on
the first (and only) night, and lost a fortune giving the audience their money
back. Like most of the Hanoverian kings, he never got on with his father, who
refused permission for him to see his mother, Queen Caroline, when she was on
her death bed. Finally he died at the age of 44, supposedly after being struck
by a cricket or a real tennis ball.
Reflecting its connections with the theatre and later, with
cinema, the gardens in the Square contain a famous statue of William
Shakespeare and Charlie Chaplin and more recently statues have been added
including Paddington Bear, Mary Poppins, Harry Potter and Bugs Bunny. Mind you,
you’ll have to really look to find some of them, for example, Wonder Woman is
halfway up a wall, and Batman is standing on the roof of the Empire Cinema.
22) Coventry Street
You can walk along Coventry Street from one end to another
without even realising you’ve done so. It’s one of the shortest streets on the
London Monopoly Board. You come to the western side of Leicester Square, and
you’re near as anything already in Piccadilly Circus. Still, that short
thoroughfare you’ve just walked down between the two is actually Coventry
Street.
Like Leicester Square it does date back to he reign of
Charles II. It’s named after Henry Coventry, one time secretary of state to the
merry monarch.
For a long time Coventry Street had a seedy reputation,
with gambling houses and prostitution. In the second half of the nineteenth
century its reputation slightly improved as it became home to several music
halls. In the last century it became particularly known for restaurants and
nightclubs. Notable establishments have included the Swiss Centre, where
Coventry Street becomes Leicester Square. This was a very modern building which
lasted from 1966 until being demolished in 2007. Its most notable feature was a
carillon clock which has been preserved on the site, which is now home to the M
and M store. Coventry Street is also home to the Trocadero, which has during
its colourful life housed many attractions.
London has had many heroes throughout its almost 2000 years
of History, many of them very well known, an some of them unsung. Such a hero
was Joseph Bazalgette. He was awarded a well deserved knighthood during his
lifetime, but it’s not that well known that thousands of Londoners owed their
lives to him. It was under his direction that the sewer system was built, which
finally relieved London from the great scourge of cholera.
So, for Water Works I have chosen to draw Bazalgette’s
Crossness Pumping Station. This was a state of the art facility when it opened
in 1859. It was decommissioned in the 1950s. Ironically the building and the
machinery inside the building was only initially saved because the cost of
demolishing it, and scrapping the machinery far exceeded any value to be gained
by doing so. It wasn’t until 1970 that the building became a grade 1 listed
building – if you’re not in the UK, this means that it has the legal standing
of a building of huge national importance and virtually guarantees its
preservation for prosperity. Work on preserving and restoring the interior
began in 2008 and the building opened as a museum in 2015. The elaborate
ironwork restored in the octagon hall is worth a visit by itself.
Many people think that Piccadilly on the London Monopoly
Board means Piccadilly Circus. Well, that’s understandable. Piccadilly Circus
is probably the most important road junction in the West End. However, it is
also at the end of a mile long road, called Piccadilly. Piccadilly is a small
section of a main thoroughfare leading West out of London, connecting with the
M4 motorway.
So, let’s start with Piccadilly Circus. Throughout the 20th
century it was particularly notable for its huge neon advertisements displayed
on the side of some of its buildings. Through my childhood there was a huge one
advertising Coca Cola. The word circus in this case has nothing to do with the
type popularised by the Ringling Brothers in the USA and Billy Smart in the UK,
but simply refers to the round shape of the junction. A the other end of Regent
Street the junction with Oxford Street is called Oxford Circus. There is also a
Cambridge Circus within walking distance.
The most famous feature of Piccadilly Circus is the statue
of a winged archer. Ask most Londoners who it represents ad they will
incorrectly tell you it is the Greek God Eros. Some who think they know better
might tell you that it is the Spirit of Christian Charity. Both are wrong. The
statue actually represents Anteros, the Go of requited love, brother of Eros.
It stands on top of the Shaftesbury Memorial Fountain. The 7th Earl
of Shaftesbury was a Victorian philanphropist who successfully campaigned to end
child labour in the UK ad replace it with free education. In the 1980s
extensive repair work was done to Sir Alfred Gilbert’s aluminium statue. It had
to be removed from the square, and as work was completed put on public display
in London’s Festival Hall, where you could view it from a platform.
Bearing in mind the names of the other properties in the
yellow set you might be forgiven that the street was named after Sir Absolom
Piccadilly, King Charles II’s ceremonial bottom-wiper. However since he never
existed, this is not true. It takes its name from the piccadill. During the
time of King James I – Charles II’s grandad – a man called Robert Baker bought
land in the area and began to manufacture piccadills. If you think of portraits
of prosperous Jacobean men, like the engraving of Shakespeare at the front of
the first folio – they are often wearing broad, white cut lace collars. These
are piccadills. They probably derive their name from a Spanish word meaning
pierced or cut.
Piccadilly has been home to many grand and stately houses.
Most of these are long gone, although Burlington House still stands an is the
home of the Royal Academy of Arts. It’s also home to the very exclusive
Burlington Arcade of shops, and Fortnum and Masons. You could argue that
Fortnum and Masons are the world’s oldest department store, opening in 1707.
However they were specifically a grocers until much later. The Ritz hotel is
only one of several along the length of Piccadilly. While we’re going through
the edited highlights it also boasts the church of St. James, designed by Sir
Christopher Wren. Piccadilly Circus Underground station with its underground
circular booking hall was a pioneering achievement which caused a sensation
when opened in the 1920s. The last remaining station surface buildings were
removed at the end of the 20th century.
25) Go To Jail
When I reached Jail I decided to draw London’s Newgate
Prison. Now I’ve reached Go To Jail it only seems right to draw the Old Bailey.
After all, we know that the instruction Go To Jail means go directly to jail.
Prior to the demolition of Newgate Prison, the Old Bailey Court stood as part
of the prison complex, so it really was a direct route from one to the other. After
Newgate was demolished, the current Old Bailey building was erected on the same
site.
The Old Bailey is more correctly called The Central
Criminal Court of England and Wales. It has become known as the Old Bailey
because that’s the name of the street on which it stands. Bailey derives from
the old roman wall of the city of Londinium, and Old Bailey Street follows part
of the course of the wall.
The current building was opened in 1907. It’s possibly best
known for the statue that tops the dome. If you ask a majority of Londoners I’d
guess that they would tell you the statue is called Blind Justice. Yet she’s
not blind! It’s common to depict the personification of Justice as a young
woman, holding a sword and a pair of scales, who is blindfolded to represent
impartiality. Yet the Old Bailey statue is not blindfolded and is actually
called Lady Justice. She wears a diadem from which sun rays radiate, and looks
a bit like the Statue of Liberty’s younger sister who has given up enlightening
the world and taken up swordfighting and greengrocers.
Regent Street is named after the Prince Regent, who would
become King George IV. I have a soft spot for this particular obese royal
reprobate, not least because I took him as a specialist subject on a well known
British quiz show. Regent Street was one of the very first planed developments
of London to actually be developed. Both Sir Christopher Wren and John Evelyn
drew up plans for redeveloping the City of London under brand new street plans,
but it took so long for anything practical to be done about the plans that people
just went ahead and built new houses according to the old street plan.
The street was originally built by architect John Nash. He
was responsible for rebuilding the Regent’s elegant and sedate Marine Pavilion
in Brighton into the glorious madcap folly of the Royal Pavilion. He became so
synonymous with a particular style that George Cruikshank labelled him as “The
one wot builds the arches’ in a cartoon from 1829. Originally Nash planned a
straight boulevard, but this was impossible because of land ownership issues.
Today, Regent Street without its elegant curve at the Piccadilly Circus end
would be unthinkable, and it makes the Street one of the most instantly
recognisable of all London’s great thoroughfares.
The Green set of properties are three London streets
particularly known for shopping, and Regent Street is certainly not short on
famous stores, including Liberty’s and Hamley’s, noted in the Guinness Book of
World Records as the World’s oldest Toy shop. For a long time it was also the
largest toy shop in the world, but that record passed elsewhere in the 1990s.
Under a change of name Regent’s Street continues to Oxford
Circus, which forms the junction with the green property, Oxford Street.
Oxford Street is only one short section of one of the main
thoroughfares leading west out of the centre of London. Just about four miles
along the road it becomes Uxbridge Road, which is the main street running
through West Ealing and Hanwell, where I grew up. It follows the route of a
Roman road, the Via Trinobantia which led all the way to Hampshire. The Oxford
Street section of the road runs from Tottenham Court Road to Marble Arch.
Marble Arch was built by John Nash as the ceremonial gateway to Buckingham
Palace, but was moved to its present location to make room for the extension
work on the Palace in the 1850s. It’s current location was once called Tyburn,
which is where the gallows held public executions.
Oxford Street’s reputation as a shopping street largely
came about with the 20th century, and if there was one pivotal
factor in its development it was probably Harry Gordon Selfridge’s decision to
open his eponymous department store on Oxford Street in 1908. Amongst the many
distinctions the store holds, it was the venue for the first ever public
demonstration of a form of television in 1925.
Like Regent Street, Oxford Street is famous for its annual
Christmas lights and every year since 1959 a celebrity has ceremoniously turned
on the lights (not the same celebrity, obviously). Oxford Street also boasted
its own lovable eccentric for many years. From 1968 until his death in 1993,
Stanley Green paraded the street with a placard advising people to eat less
meat and reduce their libido, which would make them kinder. He also produced a
pamphlet on the subject, which sold an estimated 87,000 copies. I saw Mr. Green
once or twice in Oxford Street. I didn’t speak to him. Later I saw him
interviewed on a segment for a TV show and he came across as a very pleasant if
slightly unworldly gentleman.
Bond Street is now divided between New Bond Street, the
northern section and Old Bond Street, the southern section. But it’s still
commonly called just Bond Street. Just visually you might wonder why Bond
Street, relatively narrow and modest in appearance when compared with the
elegance of Regent Street and the wide, eternally crowded bombast of Oxford
Street, is actually the ‘boss’ location of the green set. Well, if we boil it
down to simple terms there’s a couple of reasons. Firstly, it going as an exclusive
shopping street far earlier than the other two. It was built up by Sir Thomas
Bond around 1720. History does not reveal if he was ever shaken, or indeed
stirred. Prestigious shops were established on Bond Street throughout the 18th
century.
Secondly, Bond Street has managed to maintain this air of
exclusivity. So much so that Carl Faberge’s only establishment outside of
Russia came to Bond Street in 1910. It closed five years later due to turmoil
in Russia caused by the First World War. Bond Street is still home to upmarket
jewellers like Asprey and Garrards. It’s also the auction capital of London,
being home to both Sotheby’s and Bonham’s.
There’s a sculpture that I really like in Bond Street. It
shows what looks like a bench with two old codgers chewing the fat on it. It’s
called Allies, and the two old codgers are actually FDR and Winston Churchill.
It was erected in 1995 by the Bond Street Association to commemorate the
fiftieth anniversary of the end of World War II.
Here’s a
question for you to think about. In 1935, when Victor ad Marjorie made their
scouting visit to London to work out which properties to use, which of the four
stations they picked was the busiest? Answer? Liverpool Street. How come? Well,
actually, between the two world wars, Liverpool Street was the busiest station
in the whole world.
Compared
with Kings Cross and Fenchurch Street, Liverpool Street was a relative
newcomer, first opening in 1874. If you’re wondering how it could be that the
London North Eastern Railway ended up with all of these termini in Central
London, well, none of them were actually built for the LNER. The LNER was only
14 years old when Vic and Marge first alighted at King’s Cross – previously the
terminus of the Great Northern Railway. Liverpool Street was built as the
terminus of the Great Eastern.
In his
book, “Britain’s 100 best stations” journalist Sir Simon Jenkins, who served on
the board of British Rail throughout the 1980s, described how Liverpool Street
came close to being demolished in the 70s. It survived not least because of the
energetic defence by the preservation movement, led by Sir John Betjeman, still
smarting from the demolition of Euston Station, which led to a public enquiry
in 1976 – 7.
Since then the station has been greatly redeveloped but sympathetically so. Every effort has been made to keep the character of the original station and has largely succeeded really well.
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 20th 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!
Mayfair unlike all the other colour properties is not a street. It’s an
area, a rough quadrilateral – local resident, the Regency wit Sydney Smith called
it a parallelogram. It’s bordered by Park Lane, Oxford Street, Regent Street
and Piccadilly. Which, to add insult to injury, are all themselves locations on
the London board. I can’t help holding this against Mayfair. I can’t help
making an anthropomorphic comparison. To me, if Mayfair is a person, then it’s
a spoilt toff, who has everything handed to him on a plate, who wouldn’t last
five minutes in a dust up with Whitechapel or the Old Kent Road.
Coming back to reality for a minute or two, then, Mayfair takes
its name from a fair held in the area during the month of, well, May. The fair
predated the development of the area, first taking place during the reign of
Edward I. The fair lasted until 1764, specifically in the part of Mayfair that is
now called Shepherd Market – you can see the street sign on the sketch which is
based on a scene from the fifties, judging by the clothes.
As tended to be the case with other London fairs, the May Fair
became known for its increasing seediness, but the area took a remarkable turn
upmarket when the land on which it was held was obtained by the Grosvenor
family. The family would acquire the title of the Dukes of Westminster, a title
that is still in the family. They developed the land, building the elegant
Hanover Square, Grosvenor Square and Berkely Square. I’ve never heard a nightingale
singing there, but since I only walked through it at midday once that’s not
surprising.
Mayfair has not lost its exclusivity since its development
following the demise of the May Fair. The nature has changed, though. Prior to
the 20th century it was a London home to many aristocrats, but now there
are more commercial headquarters and national embassies – notably the American
embassy on Grosvenor Square.
I can’t help wondering whether Victor and Marge were swayed
in their decision to make Mayfair the most exclusive property on the whole
board by the presence of some very famous hotels. Brown’s hotel between
Albemarle and Dover Street is supposed to be one of the oldest in London. A.G.
Bell made the first telephone call in the UK there, and Rudyard Kipling wrote
at least part of the Jungle Book there. Even more famous is Claridges on Brook
Street. During he Second World War it was said that only Claridges was good
enough for exiled European Royalty.
Despite my chip on the shoulder about Mayfair, I have to
admit that it is a highly diverting part of London to walk around. It’s squares
are beautiful, the area is not short on sculpture – I like Hares by Sophie
Snyder in Berkely Square and there’s even a couple of museums – one to Michael
Faraday, and another in Brook Street dedicated to residents Handel and Jimi
Hendricks. What a musical collaboration that might have been.
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