All the Yellows, all the Greens, Liverpool Street station and all the Purples

Due to having a job, I was never able to complete my Monopoly journey, but I finally managed to put a day aside so I could finish off what I started.

All the Yellows (Leicester Square, Coventry Street and Piccadilly)

Leicester Square

Was a long walk from my house but manage to get there and get a nice picture

Coventry Street

This was about 30 seconds away from Leicester Square and was a easy find

Piccadilly

This was also about a minute away which made my walk twice as easy

All the Greens (Regent Street, Oxford Street and Bond Street)

Regent Street

This was pretty much next to Piccadilly and had done 4 in the space of 5 minutes

Oxford Street

This was about a 10 minute walk from Regent Street and was a easy find

Bond Street

This was a bit of a problem road, as there were 2 Bond Streets. Old Bond Street and New Bond Street, decided to take a picture of the new Bond Street as it was the closest 

Liverpool Street Station

This was going to be the toughest one to get to, it was a 45 min walk to the other side of London and then a 45 min walk back. Got there in the end thou but it killed me.

All the Purple's (Park Lane and Mayfair)

Park Lane

This was a nice long walk from Liverpool Street station, took about an hour but once I got there it was such a lovely area.

Mayfair

This was the last place I had to visit, problem was I didn't realise it was just the name of the area and I thought it was a road, so spent a good 10 mins trying to find the road, in the end I just ended up taking a picture of a sign that said Mayfair as proof.

So that marks off one of things that I wanted to do on my bucket list which was to visit all the places on the monopoly map. 

All the reds (Strand, Fleet Street, Trafalgar Square) and Fenchurch Street

It has been a while since I did this due to injuries, weather and the old excuse of CBA!! But finally got round to doing it and hope to have it completed before it gets cold!!

Strand


Red's were a simple one to do, the only problem is that I would have to come back on myself and as I was also doing Fenchurch Street station, I would have to come back on myself twice!!

Strand was simple enough to get to as it is right next to Whitehall and Pall Mall so knew where I was going and was simple enough to find.

Fleet Street

Fleet Street involved going past free ice cream which was sooo tempting to eat but easy to say no. Also it was London Fashion week so got to see plenty of weird dresses.

Trafalgar Square

Going from Fleet Street to Trafalgar Square meant coming back on myself and going past the free Ice Cream again, once again a no was accepted!!

Fenchurch Street Station

I decided to go to Fenchurch Street as it was 20 mins away from where I was and couldn't be bothered to go to it with the yellow's as it would had taken much longer! This then meant me walking back on myself twice and passing the free ice cream again once more and I still said no, could had easily got 3 free ice-creams.

This station is really weird, it's hidden down a small quiet road and I have never used it before yet it remains one of London's main station's.

Now it is time to hit the yellow's and not long to go till i'm finished!!

All the Oranges (Bow Street, Marlborough Street and Vine Street)

Trying to find these in London were a lot trickier then I thought it would be. There are a few Bow Street's in London, at first look Marlborough Street didn't exist in London and there were plenty of Vine Street's to go round. After research they were all found and I was on my way.

Bow Street


This street I thought would be quite well known with a few big places on it but it looked like a side road but it was part of theatre land as you can tell by the road sign.

Marlborough Street

This was a tricky road to find but reason why is because this road is now known as 'Great Marlborough Street' so once this was found out the task of finding this road was a lot easier.

Vine Street

This was a tricky road to find but thanks to Wikipedia I found out where it was exactly. When I got there I didn't understand what was so great about this street and why it was chosen, it was a very small street going off an alley. Maybe there was more there then what there was when I visited but I still marked it off as one of the properties I now visited on the monopoly map.

Free Parking

On my way back from visiting these streets I was thinking what I could do with the odd places such as 'Jail' 'Go to Jail' 'Electric Company' 'Water works' and 'free parking' I got a few ideas which will be shown soon but I decided to grab this one when I saw this opportunity. It was a great way to show on the board 'free parking' and could easily be added to what I've done so far.

Half way round the board now and going to start the 2nd half with the reds.

All the Pinks (Pall Mall, Whitehall and Northumberland Avenue) and Marylebone Station

With nothing to do on a Sunday just gone I decided to get up and go and do the pink parts of the Monopoly board.

As the places were getting closer to where I live, I was able to get more done in a day and managed to get another set done and get my second station.

Pall Mall

Pall Mall was a hour and a half walk from my house and was simple to get to. Got a chance to walk down the mall (the long road leading up to Buckingham Palace) Didn't see anything exciting on the way and found Pall Mall no problems

Whitehall


I had to come back on myself to get from Pall Mall to Whitehall, took 5 mins to get from Pall Mall to Whitehall and that was done without any hassle.

Northumberland Avenue


I didn't attempt to try and find Northumberland Avenue until I found Whitehall but I presumed I was near. A few roads later whilst waiting for my google maps to load up I accidently ended up on it.

Marylebone Station


This was the tricky part. I could had left this for another day but I had plenty of time and decided to make the most of it. It would take a hour and a half from Northumberland to Marylebone station but was up for the challenge. Saw some amazing things on the way thou, got caught up in a Sikh protest which stretched all the way down Piccadilly, came upon a huge Spanish festival which went down over half of Regent Street, came across a protest outside the Chinese Embassy which involved 1 man with a umbrella and also went past 221b Baker Street which is of course home to the great Sherlock Holmes.
I finally arrived at Marylebone Station and my day was complete.

Next the oranges......

King's Cross station and all the blues (Angel Islington, Euston Road and Pentonville Road)

With the browns completed it will now time to attack the first of 4 stations and also do the blues all in one as they were all within 10 minutes of each other although because I am such an honest person I decided to do it in the order they come on the board so I went back on myself quite a few times.

King's Cross Station

The walk to King's Cross was long and on one of the hottest days of the year so far. Got to go past the BT tower and go right up to where the entrance is, the number of times I have seen it from all over London but never went to the base of it, was quite interesting and the bottom part of the tower was a bit boring.

Once at King's Cross the photo was easy to get as there was a giant sign over the station and the first part of my day was done.

The Angel Islington


The Angel Islington was a tricky one on the board, it was the only place on the board that wasn't named after a road so I spent a whole hour doing research on it the day before and the story behind it is very interesting. When the people that brought the rights to use Monopoly from USA to the UK they decided that the USA properties wouldn't be popular enough in the UK so they journeyed to London to find places which were suitable. They all met at the tea rooms in Angel and were so pleased where they met and enjoyed their surroundings that they decided that the place would be on the Monopoly board.
Due to this there would be no road sign so I would have to find something else to use. I came upon a new article from 2004 which stated that a plaque was laid to commemorate the building and let the building be recognised. Looking on google maps I tried to find the plaque and thought it would be on the outside of the building but no luck, I then upon a blog which showed a picture of the photo and noticed it was inside. Job done. The walk there from King's Cross station was up a massive hill and after walking for almost 3 hours I just didn't want to do it, the tea room was now a Co-operative bank and as soon as you walk in the entrance the plaque is right in front of you the problem was is was right behind a desk where a meeting was taking place between a customer and a member of staff, had to use my James Bond move to get a picture and get out as soon as it was taken. Photo 2 done!!

Euston Road

Euston Road was a easy one to get as I went past it on my way to King's Cross earlier, I just had to come back on myself and find a decent enough sign to take a picture of, there was a nice one next to the British Museum and before you know it I had my second photo.

Pentonville Road

I had to walk past Pentonville twice whilst on my journey, firstly to go from King's Cross to Angel Islington and then from Angel Islington to Euston Road. But managed to find a nice road sign to complete my blues and help me forfill my task for the day! All the blues and first station done and next would be the pink's and as I made my way around the board the places were closer to me so it would be getting easier.

 

Whitechapel Road

This walk was done on 30/5/11 and out of the 2 walks so far was the weirdest.

I had a friend accompany me on this one as he was a keen photographer and if you look in the right places you can always find the right picture, the general idea was to walk the same path I went to get to Old Kent Road but 1 of the reasons I'm doing this is for scenery and not to see the same thing all over again so I decided to walk along the Thames path until we reached London Bridge and go from there.

Whitechapel is known for mainly Jack the Ripper and didn't know what to expect when visit there and had never been this far East before so it would be interesting.

The walk was originally meant to take 2hrs and 45mins but due to parts of the Thames path being closed due to buildings being built, we got massively diverted and it ended up taking 4 hours to get there and worse was to come.

Me and my friend were very confused about a number of things which we came upon on our travels: such items include about 30 pairs of trainers being hung up by chains on the brink of the Thames water (why! we don't know!) also we thought we came across the Battersea power station which is known for it's 4 massive chimneys and some Blue Peter presenter did a tightrope across all 4 (answers to me please) the one we came across only had two!! Later we came across the actual Battersea power station and were totally confused as to what the one with 2 chimneys was!!

Once we stepped foot in Westminster the rain clouds started gathering! I was worried as I was wearing a pair of £3 primark trainers which were great for walking but when it rained they sucked up water like a hover.
When we crossed London Bridge, my trainers were absolutely soaked and could hear the water squeezing in-between my toes.

We did across Pudding Lane where the great fire of London started. Another piece of history we came across, I would had took a picture but last time I got my phone camera out when it was raining I had no phone for a month and wasn't going to take the chance, plus gives me another chance to walk to somewhere whenever I get bored!

We finally got to Whitechapel Road but the road sign was dirty and behind some fencing and I deemed this not good enough for me so went down the long Whitechapel Road and staying in the rain. This did let me see the local surroundings and it was very strange. Most of Whitechapel Road was accomdated by the Muslim community so there were loads of Halal meat, places of worship (temples) places like this are either OK or very awkard, I had a few run-ins where I've been told to turn around sometimes but this didn't seem like the kinda place that would be the same as it was also on a main road so had nothing to worry about.

5 mins later I found a road sign which was worthy of taking a picture for my collection and found a train to take me back home soaking from head to toe. My friend said he saw one of the girls from 'Made in Chelsea' on our train but there would be so many reasons why she would be on a underground train.

Browns done and will be hitting the first station and some blues!!

Old Kent Road

I did the walk from my house to Old Kent Road on 23/5/2011 and only decided to do a blog as a friend suggested it.

So found the weather was going to be a beautiful day and would be a perfect day to start my monopoly adventure.

This would be one of my longest journeys to walk and worked out it would take me 2 and a half hours to walk there.

When Monopoly was first made, most of the first line of properties are in East London which back in the 40's and 50's were considered more poorer then West London. Old Kent Road was seen as a place where you could rent properties which were rare in those days and which only lower class families would live. This is one of the reasons why it is only £60 on the board but these days it is more then that, I would give a figure but I don't want to look silly.

So I set off and decided to go up through the famous King's road which is now on the new and modern London Monopoly, through Sloane Square, pass Buckingham Palace and over Westminster Bridge.
This was one of the first times I had set foot in East London as I have had no reason to visit it in the past so I was a bit 'iffy about stepping out of line and kept myself to myself.

Some of the things I saw along the way were eye opening but interesting at the same time, I went past at least 10 closed down pubs which is a shame as the pub industry is one of the worse affected due to the recession. I also saw the remains of a gay pub which was burnt to the ground with the rainbow flag still flying although you had to look carefully to see it due to the amount of damage done, it's rare to see gay pubs and never a nice thing to see things like this but some people are narrow minded.
I also managed to achieve one of my small goals and that was to find the number 1 bus for London, the other thing I want to tick off my list is find a 999 bus as that is the biggest possible number of Z99, if you see one let me know!!

I arrived at Old Kent Road and it looked a normal road till I saw a giant Tesco Megastore which would certainly help it raise it's price from £60! Apart from that Old Kent Road looked like a normal street with a few markets.

First one down and loads more to go