THE MONOPOLY WALK

The best decisions are always made at the Fox and Hounds and November 16th 1999 was no exception. The conversation turned to board games and monopoly in particular. We thought what fun it would be to 'walk the board'. We planned to leave early next morning and do it!

We caught the earliest train from Maiden Newton and made our way to Waterloo. On the way we worked out a possible route to cover all the squares on the board. We decided to take a photo of each place and use them to make a board of our own. The following is a summary of the walk in the order we did it. We decided to stay at Oxford Street Youth Hostel at the end (to recover!).

From Waterloo we made our way along The Strand and Bow Street and called in to Oxford Street Youth Hostel to drop off our rucksacks. As we walked along Oxford Street, heading for Euston, we passed Thames Water doing some pipe laying (Water Works). We covered Euston Road, Kings Cross Station and Pentonville Road. From here we made our way to The Angel, Islington. On the way, we passed a bookmakers (Chance) and a sex shop (Community Chest!), a William Hill betting shop (Chance) and a Co-operative Bank (Community Chest). We rounded a corner and spotted the London Electric Headquarters and photographed one of their vans (Electric Company). Although not part of the monopoly board, we found ourselves going up and down the City Road but resisted going in and out of the Eagle!

By now we were in need of a toilet and a coffee so we visited Liverpool Street Station. After a brief rest, we continued our walk, passing a Lottery Ticket outlet (Chance) and got to Whitechapel Road and Fenchurch Street Station. We now needed to head back to the other side of the river. Our route took us past the Tower of London (Jail), over Tower Bridge and on to Old Kent Road. We decided to go to China Town for something to eat. Suitably refreshed, we continued our walk, passing the Royal Courts of Justice (Go to jail) before visiting Fleet Street and Trafalgar Square. This led us on to Leicester Square, then Coventry Street, Piccadilly and Regent Street. As we walked along Pall Mall we saw a large number of policemen and we put it down to the England v Scotland match that was taking place. We walked along to Whitehall, visited Northumberland Avenue and took a short cut back to Marlborough Street, via Buckingham Palace. Soon after Marlborough Street we found some free parking (we thought this one was going to prove impossible in London!). We headed for Park Lane and then into Mayfair. We made a quick visit to Bond Street, and then photographed a 'green man' for crossing the road safely (Go). Vine Street meant a little bit of a detour. On our way back along Oxford Street we passed a building society (income tax) and a 'breast screening clinic' (community chest!). We photographed a really smart incoming taxi (super- taxi) at Marylebone Station, which completed our challenge. We celebrated with a nice meal and a bottle of wine