No Free Parking

Author/Guide: Nicholas Boys Smith

Why a Booktrail?

The story of London via its Monopoly streets!

ISBN: 978-1789465389
Genre: Non-Fiction

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What you need to know before your trail

From the medieval cobbles, through Dickensian iron and fog, to the neon lights and bustle of the twenty-first century, the ever-changing streets of London map out the vibrant stories, triumphs and struggles of everyone who ever called London home.

From the Roman and Celts marching along the ancient Old Kent Road, to the rattling newspaper presses of Fleet Street, the game of Monopoly has painted London’s story across cheerful coloured tiles.

But those Monopoly streets live and breathe – they don’t just illuminate our history. They open up whole new ways of thinking about it. The mobs have taken to our streets. The overlords have taken them back. Wars have spilled out into them. Lovers have snuck around them, and fires have raged through them.

In a city of rags and riches, where folk hero Dick Whittington believed the streets were paved with gold, anything could happen – and everything has.

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Travel Guide

The London streets of Monopoly

Well this is just genius. How you ever thought about discovering London through the selection of streets on the Monopoly board?

Not all of the places on the board are streets – There is no Malbourough Street but there is a Malborough Street. There is no Angel Street – the actual place is a coop bank and it used to be a coaching inn. There is no street called Mayfair – this is rather a nice,posh area where the rich kids live.

Some streets are within the area of London that grew around the areas of Westminster and London as it was in the 17th century.

The blurb at the start of the book says ‘When you approach the history of London street first, when you are street- focused, then the history of London takes on a rather different shape.”

This is one very special booktrail!