No Free Parking: The Curious History of London's Monopoly Streets

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Taking London's Monopoly Streets is a brilliantly conceived way into looking at the city's longest lasting feature - those very streets. Nevertheless, I did find the book very readable and enjoyable and because there's only so many pages for each chapter, you don't get bogged down in too much information.

In a city of rags and riches, where folk hero Dick Whittington believed the streets were paved with gold, anything could happen - and everything has. But those Monopoly streets live and breathe – they open up whole new ways of thinking about our history. Each account is freighted with incident and charm, and the book works beautifully on the level of pure narrative history. A mind-numbing hour later some bumptious child is gleefully piling hotels on Mayfair and everyone else is desperately trying to go bankrupt and get the wretched ritual over for another year. No Free Parking' is an account of London's streets, but it is also a defence and a vindication of them, and of the rich civic life that they have fostered.And because everyone else has forgotten how dreary the world’s most famous board game is, and is too stuffed with turkey and trimmings to do anything else, we meekly acquiesce. If you're a fan of Peter Ackroyd books or want to know more about London streets, then you may enjoy this. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. I did enjoy it, once I adjusted my expectations from 'interesting fun, fact book with history' to 'history book'.

From the Roman and Celts marching along the ancient Old Kent Road, to the rattling newspaper presses of Fleet Street, the game of Monopoly has painted London's story across cheerful coloured tiles.All in all, a good and interesting book that I will be keeping on my shelf in case I need to refer back to it. From the Roman and Celts marching along the ancient Old Kent Road, to the rattling newspaper presses of Fleet Street, the game of Monopoly has painted London’s story across cheerful coloured tiles. Lots of quirky stuff and fantastic quotes plus also some hugely thought-provoking big picture stuff about how London has grown in the way that it has.