The Old Kent Road is part of the A2 formerly one of the primary routes into and out of London. It is the only property on the Monopoly board that is in south London (ie, south of the River Thames).
It once formed part of Watling Street, a Roman Road that started in Dover and led to Holyhead on the north Wales coast so you could say that the route is well established at around 2,000 years!
In The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer's pilgrims took this road on their journey from London. It was probably a bit more interesting then because I think £60 is a bit too much to pay these days! There's better to come!
17 comments:
Love it! What a brilliant idea Bazza. I love those London names, so steeped in history that you just can't get this side of the pond.
Botanist: Hi there Mr Ex-pat. Yes it's tempting to think that North American history begins with the Mayflower but, of course, that is to ignore native American history (as much in Canada as the US).
I hope the reality can live up to the idea!
London is one of the places I would love to visit one day! nice!
Kathy: If you are lucky enough to come to London, Kathy, you might want to give the Old Kent Road a miss!
Hot from the desk of Sir Tom Eagerly:
Good Lord Bazza! The way some of our peasants live is astonishing. I'm sure I remember that my old nursey used to sing about the Old Kent Road whilst I was sitting on her knee.
One has to ask: why does the definite article always proceed 'Old Kent Road'?
Sir Tom: I bet you'd still like to sit on Nursey's knee, wouldn't you?
You're right to pick up on that definite article thing - nobody knows the answer!
oh, i really like this idea! i didn't even know Monopoly had other boards outside of the US version! (totally obvious that there would be)
what fun it will be to learn about the locations on the UK board :)
joanne: Hello, Joanne. The original US version is based on Atlantic City, as I'm sure you know, but now there are multiple versions all over the planet! I'm looking forward to researching it but someone already had the idea of a London pub crawl based on the Monopoly board. That could be fun.
You may find this surprising but I once worked as a labourer in a factory on The Old Kent Road. Looking back I can hardly believe it myself. There were various cockneys working there who swore a lot. I remember that one or two of them were called Alf.
I do find it surprising Rob! I don't know if it was intentional but somehow your comment is hilarious.
Swearing Alfs is probably a good description of old-time cockneys.
Interestingly I note that you have a capital letter in the definite article belonging to 'Old Kent Road': See Sir Tom's comment above.
Dear bazza,
Great idea, and I look forward to more installments. Can't wait until you get to Mayfair, where I feel I've always belonged really!
Best Wishes,
David.
David, I always suspected that you were a toff! Maybe you're related to Sir Tom?
Whitechapel Road, which completes the brown set is more interesting and coming soon. I think I will skip Community Chest.
I have no idea how much that is in U.S. currency but I like reading the history behind the Old Kent Road. It seems they have Monopoly boards for every place, real or fictional, these days. Over here, we have Monopoly games for individual cities and boards for characters like The Simpsons and Star Wars movies. It's gotten so out of hand over here that I feel like taking the dice and shoving them up... Ah, well.. I'm too much the gentleman to finish that sentence. :)
Entertaining post, bazza. Keep this series up. It's informative and groovy.
Kezza the gentleman: Why don't you start a blog series using the US board (or one of the many).
We can then learn about each other's country. Hooray!
Kezza: PS - £1 is about $1.5
Wow to the post and the comments; can't wait to see where this goes...
:)
dc: Hi. Well I don't think it's going to go far because you always end up where you started (might even go to jail!)
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