Old Moaner Travel
I haven’t been everywhere, but it’s on my list
Monopoly London in Lockdown
When COVID-19 hit, London shut down, shops closed and visitors stayed away, leaving the bustling metropolis eerily quiet, with normally busy streets deserted and only a handful of people out and about.
Adhering to Government guidelines we visit London as you've never seen it before, shot on the 8th April 2021 between the lifting of the "stay at home" rules in England and the opening of 'non-essential' shops on 12th April.
The biggest issue was where to visit. as London is such a large place, in the end I decided to visit the 26 named locations on the standard London Monopoly board ..... so join us as we explore London in Lockdown. (clicking an image will open a larger version)
Old Kent Road and Whitechapel Road
The first two properties on the board are, ironically, the geographic outliers.
Old Kent Road is the only property on the board located south of the river and is the longest road on the board, stretching from near Elephant and Castle all the way to Lewisham.
It's by no means the prettiest street, mainly a road of disparate shops ranging from ethnic provisions through to the ubiquitous charity shops.
Basically an out of the way place, best passed through on the way to Kent and the channel crossings.
Whitechapel Road is very much your typical East End but more the ethnic, currently Bengali, flavour than the cockney variety nowadays .
Running for approximately a mile from the eastern edge of The City heading towards Bow.
The newly rebuilt Royal London Hospital dominates the skyline on the southern side of the road.
In normal times the broad northern pavement is home to a very popular, bustling market selling everything imaginable, including some fabulous fabrics and textiles.
Due to the COVID restrictions only food stalls were open for business and the street was much quieter than usual, making it passable with ease, whereas normally you have to battle through the crowds.
For those interested in real crime stories The Blind Beggar pub, where the Kray Brothers and their gang used to hang out and where Ronnie Kray murdered George Cornell in front of witnesses, all of whom saw nothing, is opposite the Royal London Hospital.
In earlier times, it's the pub where William Booth preached his first sermon, which led to the creation of the Salvation Army.
Kings Cross Station
The first of four railway stations on the Monopoly board, Kings Cross is the largest of the stations on the board.
When Monopoly first appeared Kings Cross Station was in a very seedy area of London, the sort of place you would rather leave than arrive and certainly not an area to venture alone after dark.
The station is still home to the East Coast mainline but the station and entire area have been redeveloped and improved beyond all recognition, leaving the bad old days far behind.
The new station is a Marmite construction adding a modern façade to the old Victorian building, personally I love it.
This photograph of the main concourse was taken at 17:17 at the height of what should be the rush hour but with people encouraged to work from home it was almost deserted.
The station is also exploiting its Harry Potter connection with a special Platform 9¾ where, who knows, you may even see the Hogworts Express departing.
The Angel Islington, Euston Road and Pentonville Road
The next three properties are all located in the area surrounding Kings Cross Station.
The Angel Islington takes it's name from a pub which used to be located at the junction of Islington High Street and Pentonville Road. The original pub is now a Co-Op supermarket but a new, modern and ,dare I say sanitised Weatherspoon's version, has opened next door, definitely not the same character as the original. Like most streets, Islington High Street was much quieter than normal in lockdown.
Pentonville Road is a pretty nondescript road linking the Angel with Kings Cross Station and, contrary to popular belief, is not home to Pentonville Prison.
Euston Road is one of the main east / west routes in London, linking Kings Cross and Euston stations and is busy with traffic all hours of the day. It has some shops but is mainly office blocks with the main attraction being the British Library.
Pall Mall, Whitehall and Northumberland Avenue
We're really into central London now, with the next three roads all leading off Trafalgar Square, more on that one later.
Pall Mall is very much reminiscent of the Parisienne boulevards, a wide road with elegant buildings and generally more traffic than people. It was the first London street to be lit by gaslights in 1807. It's home to some high end offices plus a generous spattering of Gentlemen's clubs.
Whitehall is another wide boulevard but one which is very much associated with Government with many Ministries having there offices here as well as having Downing Street leading from it. The centre of the road is home to many wartime memorials, including the national Cenotaph. In reality most of the visitors to Whitehall tend to be tourists, something notably lacking during lockdown.
Northumberland Avenue runs parallel to Whitehall from Trafalgar Square and is a tree lined boulevard with several high end hotels. It's also home to the Met Office.
Marylebone Station
The second of the stations is the smallest of the mainline stations and also the most recently built, opening in 1899.
The station was threatened with closure in the 1980's due to declining numbers and services but it remained open providing a popular commuter link with Aylesbury and a more elegant alternative route to Birmingham than the West Coast Mainline. Similarly it operates a popular link with Oxford, offering a more scenic route than the Great Western into Paddington.
Indeed the station has become so popular Chiltern Railways are planning to increase the capacity of their rush hour trains.
Bow Street, Marlborough Street and Vine Street
Bow Street is virtually next door to Covent Garden and is a relatively short street, renown for being home to the eponymous Magistrates Court and is also home to the Royal Opera House and Design Council. Pedestrian traffic here tends to be more passing than visiting specifically.
There isn't a Marlborough Street in central London the road we have is actually Great Marlborough Street, which comes off Regent Street near Liberty department store. It's a fairly nondescript road with a mixture of shops and offices. Like Bow Street it used to house a Magistrates Court, now long gone
Vine Street is a "blink and you miss it" street, indeed it's stretching credulity to even call it a street. Running parallel to Piccadilly it had no frontages and is just an access alley for delivery vehicles. It's believed it is included in the orange group because it used to have a police station, thus maintaining the law link with these properties.
It can safely be said this group of streets is definitely the most boring on the board.
Strand, Fleet Street and Trafalgar Square
Some iconic names now as we turn the corner to the third side of the Monopoly board.
Commonly called The Strand, this road is known for it's restaurants, theatres and art deco buildings, the most noted being the iconic Savoy Hotel. With a spattering of shops and its close proximity to Trafalgar Square means it attracts a lot of tourists and is usually pretty congested.
Fleet Street, named after the river which now flows under the street, was synonymous with the British Press until the papers move east. Journalists were noted for enjoying long, lingering lunches in the local pubs and Fleet Street is lined with historic pubs, many tracing their history back over 300 years, including some designed by Sir Christopher Wren. Even though the Street's glory days are long gone there is still a great sense of history in this iconic street. On a more gruesome note, No. 186 was the location of Sweeny Todd's barbers shop, where many a client ended up with a more severe short back and sides than they bargained for.
Trafalgar Square has to be one of the major gathering places in London, be it for New Year celebrations, protests or street parties, overlooked by a column paying tribute to national hero, Horatio Nelson. The square is also home to the National and National Portrait Galleries . Plinths stand in each of the four corners, with the North West plinth being home to varying artistic features, on the day of this visit, a massive Ice cream.
Fenchurch Street Station
The odd one out of stations on the Monopoly board, Fenchurch Street station is solely a commuter terminal station, serving South Essex, without any inter-city, long distance services.
It's also the only terminus station in London without a corresponding underground station.
However Tower Hill (underground) and Tower Gateway (DLR) are only a short walk away.
Despite the lack of long distance services the station is relatively busy for its size being in walking distance of most of the major City institutions and offices.
Leicester Square, Coventry Street and Piccadilly
We're getting more upmarket now and are really in the heart of tourist London.
Leicester Square is a prime entertainment centre with a massive cinema and nearby theatres, not forgetting Chinatown just a street away. The area has been cleaned up, having a terrible reputation for prostitution and drug dealing and taking and a substantial investment has been made to bring the area more upmarket and it has succeeded. In normal times it is home to the half price ticket booth, where heavily discounted tickets are available for that days West End shows.
I've been visiting London all my life and have lost count of the number of times I have walked between Piccadilly Circus and Leicester Square, not realising I was walking down Coventry Street. A full blown tourist trap, full of souvenir shops and "attractions" of varying degrees of tackiness it is generally rammed with tourists ........ not during lockdown though.
Piccadilly is one of the grand thoroughfares of London connecting brash Piccadilly Circus and Hyde Park Corner. Home to places such as the Royal Academy and many high end stores, most famously Fortnum and Mason, the Queen's grocer. The Ritz Hotel can be found here along with Green Park.
Regent Street, Oxford Street and Bond Street
Time now for the shopaholics and the three main shopping streets of London and a magnet for locals, UK visitors and tourists alike.
All the major stores are here, from the major international brands, through to iconic British institutions like Hamleys Toy Shop or Selfridges department store.
The pavements here are normally heaving with laden shoppers, unfortunately the area also attracts more than its fare share of pickpockets and shoplifters as well.
During lockdown, however these streets were deserted.
Liverpool Street Station
The main station serving the East of England it was opened in 1874 but was substantially redeveloped and rebuilt in the late 1980's.
Despite being modernised it still retains its original Victorian roof.
Park Lane and Mayfair
The big two on the Monopoly Board.
Park Lane is basically a large dual carriageway, heading north / south, bounded on the western side by Hyde Park and on the eastern side by high end blocks of flats, hotels and car showrooms selling cars most of us can only dream of.
Mayfair is the only property on the board not named after a single street. It's an are of London bounded by Oxford Street, Park Lane, Piccadilly and Bond Street and is home to the most expensive property in London. Many of the grand houses are now either Embassies or posh flats.
There are also plenty of mews houses. The area is home to top hotels like Claridges and top restaurants like La Gavroche, outside which Michel Roux Jnr posed for a photograph for me. It's also home to grand squares like Berkley, Hannover and Grosvenor.
So this ends our Monopoly lockdown tour of London - hopefully the streets will never be this quiet again.
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