Report by Mary
5 of us met at Katrina’s on Tuesday and had an interesting meeting about the game of Monopoly. The game was invented in 1904 as an anti monopolist educational game and came to the UK In 1936 ,Waddingtons having been granted the licence. It is available in many countries worldwide and in many languages.
The four railway stations were thought to have originally been those going east, west, north and south from London but the four chosen were all owned by by LNER at the time.
King’s Cross was spoken about, its history to the present day and many personal experiences came to light.
We also got an in-depth view of Whitehall, and its many changes over centuries. There are many buildings which are open to the public and we all showed an interest in visiting them. There were memories of Downing Street being a thoroughfare in our lifetime and a personal recollection of when and why it was closed off.
Whitechapel was next on the list, with mention of notorious murders —Jack the Ripper and the Kray brothers. The various and changing demographics were talked about.
We had a discussion about the length of time the game takes, originally it was supposed to be 45 minutes- an hour, but we felt that it always takes longer !
We had some of the play pieces to see, and they are very elaborate and have changed over the years, with the Top Hat being consistent. One of group had played recently and commented on how competitive it was was within the family and we all agreed with that sentiment.
All in all a really good evening and one which could be repeated as there’s 40 squares to choose from.