Wednesday 20 May 2015

London: Monopoly Streets

I've finally lived out another one of my dreams - visiting all the streets that correspond to the streets on the UK version of the Monopoly board. It kinda started out as a silly excuse to travel around Australia, as I don't think I'd have gone to South Australia otherwise (apologies to my South Australian readers), and I still haven't completed the Australian version yet, though I've done five states worth of streets now, but seeing as it's very unlikely that I will return to London in the near future, I though I'd take the chance to do it all in one go.

We didn't end up going on a Monopoly tour or anything like that, but we did see some people with Monopoly badges at Leicester Square, so I assume that something like that exists. We just looked at a map of London, and decided to space out the streets based on the sights we wanted to see.

Day 1
Given that it walking distance from our hotel, we decided to hit up Marylebone Station. Didn't really go inside or anything, just got my photo and left. Though we happened upon Baker St, which is nearby, and decided to check if 221B was really there, and it kinda is, I don't think it's 221 if you look at the numbers on the surrounding buildings, but there is a small building that is made to look like it'd be the home of Sherlock Holmes, and the SH museum is also there.

Park Lane was also near our hotel, so we did a walk there, too (never seen so many expensive cars in my life, just parked there on the street). It turns out that Mayfair is a suburb, not a street, so I didn't manage to find a street called Mayfair, but I found a hotel called The Mayfair, which I thought was kinda cute (because people always want to build hotels on Mayfair), and used that for my photo instead.



Oxford St, Bond St (which is actually now New Bond St and Old Bond St) are also in Mayfair (though we ended up returning for those, as we had to look up whether they were the ones referred to on the board or not).

Day 2
Caught the tube to Piccadilly. Actually, most of the streets on the game are in or near the West End part of London, so if you wanted, you could start here. But we decided for a more scenic route so headed to Pall Mall, and walked to Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, the London Eye, and Westminster Bridge. We dun goofed, and didn't line up our arrival at Buckingham Palace to be when the changing of the guard happened, so we had to go back for that (11:30am - but get there early if you want a good view, as people start lining the streets and it's tough to find a good vantage point). Downing Street was closed off, so we didn't get to see 10 Downing St (where the Prime Minister lives).

We also knocked off Regent St, Marlborough St (which is actually Great Marlborough St in real life), Leicester Square, Trafalgar Square (you can't feed the pigeons there anymore), Vine St (there must have been something there when they picked the street initially, but there really isn't anything there now), Bow St, Coventry St, Whitehall, Northumberland Ave, and the Strand.

As you'd expect, there's a lot of shopping on the green properties, and high end shopping. I really liked Leicester Square, as we went to a great fish and chips shop there, and I went to Haagan Dazs for the first time (which I paid for later, as my eczema broke out during the night, but I think it was well worth it). The advantage of having our sleeping pattern still slightly messed up by jet lag was that we were waking up at around 6am, so by the time we were hitting some of these sights, there was barely anyone around. Later in the day, when we returned to Piccadilly, it was so much more crowded.

Day 3
Caught the train to King's Cross Station, which happens to be where Platform  9 3/4, of Harry Potter fame, is. You can get your photo taken running a trolley into the platform, but I think it's one of those deals where a photographer takes a photo and you have to pay for it. They do have all the different house scarves there though, so you can support your favourite house while you're at it (I was sorted into Hufflepuff on the Pottermore website, so I guess that's my house). Next to King's Cross Station is St Pancras International Station, which is where we caught our Eurostar train to Paris.

Just outside, you will find Euston Rd and Pentonville Rd.

From King's Cross Station, you could walk to the Camden Town market, which I wrote about in my last post, and that's what we did. Then made the crazy walk up Pentonville Rd to find The Angel Islington - which isn't a street either, but an area called Angel, with a street called Islington High St.



It was a long walk, and we should have just caught a bus, but I had to work off those Hagaan Dazs waffles. This time though, we did catch a bus (the 205) to Whitechapel Rd, which is where you can find the famous Brick Lane (home to lots of great Indian food, we went to a place /r/London recommended called Aladin, and I'm still drooling over the coconut rice we had. Somewhat pricey, but well worth it - be careful though, as Reddit warns that people will harrass you to go into their restaurant, and will promise drinks or discounted bills, but then not follow through with that promise and so you have to check your bill).

We walked back to Liverpool Station, where we caught the train back to our hotel.

Day 4
Caught the tube to Tower Hill station, which is a short walk to Fenchurch St Station. Walked to the Tower of London and saw the Crown Jewels. Walked across Tower Bridge, walked to Old Kent Rd and created a new walk that also worked my biceps. As I mentioned, Old Kent Rd was where the shoplifting incident happened.

Crossed London Bridge, and crazily decided to walk all 311 steps to the top (upon leaving, you get a certificate commemorating the fact that you walked up 311 steps). Walked past St Paul's Cathedral - our legs were jelly at this point, and we weren't all that keen to do more sightseeing. Then walked up to Fleet St.

Other than jail, which we weren't too keen to visit, and electric company and water works, we managed to cover all of the streets in a few days, and see a decent part of London while we were at it. All in all, I think it was a pretty cool way to see London, but if you're hard-pressed to see lots of the usual tourist sights, I wouldn't recommend it, as it doesn't leave a lot of time for many things, but we saw everything that we wanted to see, and I think that's the important thing.

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