Monopoly Board Second Leg 🟦 Booking open from mid-day 18 December until mid-day 20 December
ââ25 January 2024
Monopoly Board Second Leg 🟦 Booking open from mid-day 18 December until mid-day 20 December
Walk details and booking forms
Bookings made before the stated dates and times are not accepted
Thursday 7 December 2023 Thursday 14 December 2023 Monopoly Board First Leg 10 miles / 16 km 🟥 Fully booked Waiting list only
The classic UK version of Monopoly was created in the 1930âs, and love it or loathe it, very few people will not have come across this board game at some point in their lives. But can you actually âwalkâ the board game in real life? Well, plenty of people do – Scouts and Guides race around the âboardâ every year for charity, there is an annual London Monopoly Cycle Ride organised by the Clarion Cycle Club, while for those who favour a stagger (Beer Appreciation Group?) there is also a Monopoly Board pub crawl! There are two popular ways of âwalkingâ the real-life board. You can for example visit the squares in the order in which they are laid out. In which case be prepared to walk just over 50 miles. Alternatively, you can visit the 22 streets, 4 stations and 2 utilities in the most âefficientâ way, which works out at about 20 miles or 2 longer walks For our first walk, we start of course from Go!, the exact location of which is somewhat contentious. When calculating distances from London, Charing Cross/Trafalgar Square is officially considered the centre. However after plotting all the Monopoly board positions on a map, Ordnance Survey revealed the actual location for Go! to be close to Lambeth North Tube station, a conclusion since supported by computing experts using CAD software. So, Lambeth North it is for our start point, with a finish somewhere in Westminster for a festive drink! Along the way there will be some commentary, which will help us to learn more about the Monopoly streets and how they came to end up featuring in this most iconic of board games. So, as well as walking shoes you will need to bring your listening equipment. That way no-one gets told to Go to Jail!
Thursday 11 January 2024 Thursday 25 January 2024 Monopoly Board Second Leg 10 miles / 16 km 🟦 Booking open from mid-day 18 December until mid-day 20 December
On this second section of the Monopoly Board, we return to Westminster to pick up where we left off in December. Although this walk covers the same distance as Walk 1, we visit rather more squares. By the time we complete todayâs walk we will have been to 14 âstreetsâ, 2 stations and the remaining utility. As in Walk 1 there will be some commentary provided, with a focus today on some of the âerrorsâ that ended up being incorporated in the game. Itâs not all pavement pounding either, as we get the opportunity to include a few sections of iconic London parks as we travel between squares. However, we do walk through some of the busier Westminster streets, so those at the back will need to take extra care to keep the leading group in sight! Just as for Walk 1 our exact route remains a mystery, but we finish at one of the most important squares on the board
The locations on the standard British version of Monopoly were selected in 1935 by Victor Watson, managing director of John Waddington Limited. Watson became interested in the board game after his son Norman had tried the original US version and recommended the company produce a board for the domestic market. The story goes that Victor and his secretary Marjory Phillips went on a day-trip to London from the head offices in Leeds in order to look for suitable locations to use. History does not record what Mrs. Watson made of this arrangement! Fittingly therefore, our walk ends at the place where Victor and Marjory after a hard day pounding the streets of London finally decided on which locations to use before returning north to Leeds. And yes, there is something to commemorate this momentous event, as hopefully we shall see!
Members must not attend any Longer Walk if they or a close contact have recently been diagnosed with or shown any COVID-19 symptoms, are awaiting test results or are self-isolating under Government guidance applicable at the time of the walk
The classic UK version of Monopoly was created in the 1930âs, and love it or loathe it, very few people will not have come across this board game at some point in their lives. But can you actually âwalkâ the board game in real life? Well, plenty of people do – Scouts and Guides race around the âboardâ every year for charity, there is an annual London Monopoly Cycle Ride organised by the Clarion Cycle Club, while for those who favour a stagger (