It was spring 1935 when Victor Watson, head of Leeds-based printing firm Waddingtons, bought the exclusive rights for boardgame Monopoly for most of the world beyond North America. Soon after he set out for the capital with his secretary to select the 22 streets that were to feature (albeit with a few misnomers), and while their choices have made household names of streets that many would otherwise not recognize, their rough allocation on the board by prosperity hides their rich history. Here are some of the tales of their past, as revealed in Nicholas Boys Smith’s No Free Parking.
Old Kent Road – A Prehistoric Route
One of the cheapest properties on the board, and aptly named, Old Kent Road is older than London itself and etymological research lends it a firm place in prehistory. As an ancient route connecting Kent and the Thames it would have wound its way through the marshes and mud flats south of the river to a crossing point at London Bridge, where fords, islets and short sections of wooden bridges would have provided passage northwards. Among the archaeological finds discovered near the bridge are two Bronze Age shields, suggesting that prehistoric travellers offered votives to the river.
Pentonville Road – A Bypass for Cows
When we think of Georgian London, refined areas such as Mayfair tend to spring to mind, but much of the city was far more bustling and chaotic. Rapid growth meant that drovers heading to Smithfield found themselves ushering cattle, sheep, goats, pigs and poultry through streets that were busy with people and carriages, and so in 1756 the city’s first bypass was created. Termed the ‘New Road’ it began at the junction of the Harrow and Edgware Roads (then rural), headed east through what is now King’s Cross to join St John Street at the Angel Inn, Islington. It’s eastern section cut through the land of Henry Penton, whose son created the suburb of Pentonville – a desirable locale before the city’s expansion saw the area surrounded.
Bond Street – ‘The World is Not Enough’
Their family motto might have been immortalized by Ian Fleming, but the Bonds’ legacy is also writ into the capital’s streets. Born in Peckham in the 17th century, Thomas Bond married queen Henrietta Maria’s maid and created a syndicate that bought the sumptuous Clarendon House on Piccadilly, then ruthlessly demolished it to make way for three streets: Dover, Albemarle and Bond Street. Clean, well-lit and safe, the area quickly attracted the wealthy and established the West End as the place to shop but its full development lasted from the 1680s until the 1720s, during which time Thomas died. Reflecting this turn of events Bond Street became known as Old Bond Street, with the section to the north completed by his son and named New Bond Street, but they are united on the Monopoly board as, fittingly, one of the most expensive properties.
Go to Jail
While Monopoly features a single jail at one corner, for much of the capital’s history there were numerous small jails that were closely integrated with daily life. With fines and corporal punishments preferred over custodial sentences for those who had committed a crime, jails tended to hold offenders for only a short time prior to sentencing and most of the incarcerated were there due to unpaid debts. The prisons were privately run and debtors were charged for their food and lodgings, so while some lived relatively well – there are stories of freemen and members of the clergy who refused to pay their debts and leave Ludgate – others were left to starve unless they received donations of food. It was not until the reform efforts of the 19th century that local jails were replaced by large, bureaucratic institutions on the edge of residential areas.
Railway Stations
In the Victorian era the full potential of locomotives to carry people and goods at speed grasped the public’s imagination – investment in the railway companies often brought great riches, and the companies themselves were powerful enough to influence government policy. Parliamentary acts giving them compulsory purchase rights resulted in the swift eviction of tens of thousands of people whose homes were in a prime location for a line or terminal, reducing the population of the ancient City by almost half between 1850 and 1870 but allowing the creation of the entire overground network in just twenty years. By the time Victor Watson was compiling squares for Monopoly, many of the companies had merged and each of the railway stations he featured had come under the ownership of the LNER.
