The London Monopoly Challenge

Having left Brussels and taken the Eurostar back to the UK, I arrived at my cousin Morgan's house in London on Thursday night. I had until 8:40PM the next day until my train home so I had to find something to do for a day in London. What should one do in London? Well, having lived there previously and been on many visits to London there isn't much I  haven't done as a tourist so this time I decided to do something a bit more adventurous. On Friday I took on the LONDON MONOPOLY CHALLENGE!!!

This should be pretty self-explanatory as a concept however for the avoidance of doubt, the idea is to visit all 26 unique destinations found on the London version of the popular board game Monopoly in whatever manner you wish. There are many variations to the challenge which depend largely on the people who partake in it. Every year the Scouts organise an event called 'The Monopoly Run' , there is a Monopoly Pub Crawl and for the true fans of Monopoly out there, you can even make up your own locations for the standard spaces found on all editions of the game (e.g. some people use Pentonville Prison in London as Jail, the Tower of London is Community Chest etc.).

My inspiration for this came from watching a video on the Youtube channel Daily Mix a few months back in which popular Youtubers Jim Chapman and Thatcher Joe attempt to do a time limited version of the challenge (and fail miserably I might add)- you can watch the video itself here. 

As mentioned above, there are many ways to take the challenge and it is completely up to you so to avoid missing my train home, I meticulously researched and planned my route months in advance to guarantee the best way of completing the task. Here is my route map below

This is my original route, to see the actual route I took then click the link underneath this picture

https://mapsengine.google.com/map/edit?mid=zJUMKbMtJ1dY.kKKWMjxYUs80


At approximately 11AM, I set off from Lambeth North Tube Station (The equivalent of the 'Go' space on the board as it is exactly halfway between the first property, Old Kent Road and the last-Mayfair). The journey in between Go and Old Kent Road is one of the longer stretches on the route so I decided to get a day's worth of bike hire access so I could hire a Boris bike! This is very cheap to do as the initial access fee is only £2 and all journeys under 30 minutes are free which is ideal for hop-on hop-off quick journeys. Be wary of the time you hire each cycle for though as the price can soon rocket up if you keep hold of one for too long. For more info, go to the Barclays Cycle Hire website by following the link here

Starting at Go! Lambeth North Tube Station

After reaching my first stop on the map, Old Kent Road, I then cycled over Tower Bridge and the River Thames below to visit Whitechapel Road, Vine Street, Fenchurch Street Station and Liverpool Street Station. The Brown section, 2 Train Stations and one Orange done in just over an hour, great start!

There was another long stretch between Liverpool Street and the Light Blue Properties in which despite having a map I managed to get a teeny bit lost around the Barbican and in the Finsbury area before eventually finding Pentonville Road, the Angel Islington, Euston Road and of course King's Cross Station. As some of you may recall, upon my first visit to King's Cross before departing for Brussels I got a picture at Platform 9 3/4 but to my shock horror afterwards I realised I was wearing a Gryffindor scarf instead of that of Hufflepuff, the house assigned to me on Pottermore. So I waited in line behind the endless queue of Asian tourists before rectifying that mistake and here's the evidence.

Liverpool Street Station

Visiting Platform 9 3/4 for a second time

Shortly after my trip to Hogwarts, I completed all the Train Stations by visiting Marylebone then made my way south to complete the Dark Blues of Park Lane and Mayfair (for those that don't know, Mayfair is actually an area of London rather than a street so when it comes to taking photographic evidence of your visit to the Property then you can choose any location in the area to record it. Personally I chose Grosvenor Square) as well as the Greens of Oxford Street, Bond Street and Regent Street. By this time the famously poor British weather kicked in, opening up the floodgates as the rain came down. I didn't only have meteorological problems, by this time it was about half past 3 and with a train to catch in the evening I felt slightly pressed for time.

A hotel in Mayfair, seemed appropriate

Berkeley Square, Mayfair

Regent Street

 The rain worsened and worsened with every minute so my fairly pleasant jaunt around the streets of London was turned into a mad wet dash to complete the challenge taking in the remaining streets. Marlborough Street followed by the Yellows Piccadilly, Coventry Street and Leicester Square then onto Bow Street (completing the Oranges. I also lost my list of destinations around this point to :( wah) then to the Reds of Fleet Street, The Strand and Trafalgar Square and then finally the Pink properties of Pall Mall, Northumberland Avenue and last but not least Whitehall finishing outside Big Ben of all places. Just after 5:30, with the appearance of a drowned rat, I boarded the Tube back to my cousin's house exhausted, sopping wet but overall feeling satisfied.

Marlborough Street

Leicester Square

Trafalgar Square

Popping by to see Liz

Was it worth it? I believe so. Over the course of the day I saw so much more of London than I'd ever really seen in the past. London is one of those great world cities that could be described as 'a rich tapestry'. Each area be it, Lambeth, Westminster, Whitechapel, Soho or Mayfair has its own unique character about it and acts almost as a microcosm of the United Kingdom as a nation. I saw and experienced so much more than I had any other time as a tourist and really got to grips with what London is like as a place. It does alter your perception of the city for good or for worse but all in all it is something I would recommend to those of you out there who are tired of having an artificial tourist's view of London and who fancy a bit of a challenge.

Hopefully I've convinced you to take up the challenge. If so then I'll leave with you with two bits of advice 1. Give yourself plenty of time to do it, preferably a day 2. For a more pleasant experience, take on the challenge during the Spring/Summer months when you are less likely to get drenched like me!

FP

#FraserOnTour

PS. I did film a video as I went around and if the footage is any good I shall upload it to my youtube channel, stay tuned