The Monopoly Challenge 2000
On a bright March day nine keen Explorers went to London for the toughest, most gruelling challenge of the year. Our task, to visit every one of the locations on a Monopoly Board in a day, and to be photographed at every one holding all the playing pieces used in the game. Points to be given for creativity and innovation.
We arrived at Victoria Coach Station at about 11.00am and after the obligatory group photo we all headed off our separate ways, with instructions to meet back there at 8.00pm. My team of Debbie, Louise and myself decided we would visit all the locations within walking distance first before moving onto those which would have to be reached by tube.
Go to Jail!
Our challenge began at Buckingham Palace with us sitting in a circle on the pavement trying to fashion a battleship from a newspaper. Our appearance must have been appealing since one tourist was kind enough as to throw 20p into the centre of our group; I didn't realise the challenge was also going to be a money earner.
After three hours of trudging round central London getting random strangers to take photographs of us next to street signs we reached our first tube station. Our technique was to go for nice looking couples or preferably families to entrust the camera to, absolutely no one at all dodgy or suspicious looking would do. An interesting policy since our group was walking round with a solitary boot, a paper ship and a portable iron as if we were proud of it. NB the paper ship was later replaced by a postcard of a Space-Ship.
Kings Cross.
A few train trips more and it dawned upon us that we could actually make it all the way round. With this in mind a suggested a five minute ice cream break by the Tower of London. While having this I idly flicked through the A-Z and realised that to complete our goal we had another 17 more train journeys to make in about three and a half hours. We quickly got up and left.
What had previously been a leisurely stroll, seeing the sites, taking the odd picture suddenly became a life and death situation. We ran desperately along Old Kent Road frantically searching for some kind of indication that it was Old Kent Road and which we could hence be photographed by.
Free Parking!
After some more panicking in trying to find Mayfair (specifically the Mayfair Hotel) we eventually arrived at Marylebone Station our final port of call. Here we were photographed by the first people to actually ask us what on earth we were doing.
After this we made for the pub. Some more running from Victoria railway station to Victoria coach station later we got back 10 minutes before the coach left. Just enough time for a pint, a chat and Debbie and Louise to take a picture of the pub's toilet (Waterworks??). We soon found out that the other two teams had had good days out as well, but both of them had just failed to complete the whole lot.
The final port of call.
Unfortunately we didn't do enough to win, although we completed the "Challenge" we didn't take very innovative photos (it also did not occur to us to submit photos we didn't even take on the day). Still, it was a great day out and we have still got the memory of the day we visited every location on a Monopoly Board.
Original page by Kevin Brandom, report by Howard Towner.
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