Monopoly Pub Crawl
Saturday 18 March 2006.

For those who don't know, the idea of this pub crawl is to visit a pub on every street of the London Monopoly board. This was made famous by Dave Lister, from the 1990s sitcom Red Dwarf. Many variants are possible, we were aiming to visit the streets in order but missing stations, water works, jail etc. We also tried this in spring 2005 but only got to Coventry Street, so the aim was to finish it... Details below are based on my scribbled notes. Pubs are on the relevant street except where noted.

Old Kent Road
Starting from Elephant and Castle tube station, all of the participants were collected and we bussed down to the Old Kent Road
Pub: The Lord Nelson. In: Approx 10:50 (they seemed happy to give a head start). Out: 11:08

Whitechapel Road
Quite a trek to get here from the Old Kent Road. Caught the bus to New Cross Gate tube despite the other groups also starting the pub crawl suggesting we were going the wrong way... Short walk from Whitechapel tube to this pub, past the variety of smells from the market.
Pub: The Blind Beggar. In: 11:47. Out: 12:00

Angel, Islington
Lack of Hammersmith & City line that day made the escape from Whitechapel road trickier, but I think we used the District line and changed at Bank. Pub easily reached from Angel tube.
Pub: The Angel. In: 12:28. Out: 12:45

Euston Road
Quick bus down to the Euston road, with a choice of pubs, this one being my favourite
Pub: Euston Flyer. In: 12:56. Out: ~1:10

Pentonville Road
Quick pit-stop in Kings Cross station to buy sandwiches for lunch. Then the bus back where we had just been to get the Pentonville road pub in order. I think we saw the group from Old Kent Road here again, but we were ahead!
Pub: The Castle. In: 1:26. Out 1:45

Pall Mall
So, five done and on to the purple ones. Tube to Green Park, saw the anti-war rally which we decided not join. So down Pall Mall. This street doesn't actually have a pub on it, but the one we went to is really close down a little back alley.
Pub: The Red Lion, Crown Passage. In: 2:09. Out: 2:20

Whitehall
Nice little walk via Green Park to this one.
Pub: Lord Moon of the Mall. In 2:33. Out 2:43.

Northumberland Avenue
The pub here is actually on Northumberland Street, but it is right next to Northumberland Avenue so a reasonable substitute.
Pub: The Sherlock Holmes, Northumberland Street. In: 2:47. Out: ??

Bow Street
We somehow managed to get separated on the walk up to here but after some mobile conversations we managed to meet again in the pub
Pub: The Marquess of Anglesey. In 3:15. Out: ~3:30

Marlborough Street
Maybe we walked to here, or maybe we caught the bus or tube. My memory is hazy. I can remember that they were showing the rugby in the pub
Pub: O'Neills. In: 3:58. Out: ??

Vine Street
Right, this is the joke of the monopoly pub crawl. There are two Vine Streets listed in the A-Z. One is just off Piccadily, the other is in the City of London. I think this is where things went wrong last year, where we discovered the lack of pub on Vine street W1, so went out to the city to find the two pubs on that Vine Street were shut on Saturdays.
This year we went to Vine Street W1 (which I now gather is the "proper" Vine Street) to find one side of (the very small and grotty) street had been knocked down! Thus the pub suggested on the internet didn't exist. Thus, we just found the nearest pub which was:
Pub: Red Lion, Duke of York street. Nice pub, pity it wasn't on Vine Street. In: 4:28. Out: 4:40

Strand
So a walk past Trafalgar Square again onto the Strand
Pub: The Coal Hole. In: 4:55. Out: ~5:05

Fleet Street
Maybe a bus here and a bit of walking up and down.
Pub: The King and Keys. In: 5:20. Out: 5:36

Trafalgar Square
Trafalgar Square is another street without a pub on it. The nearby pub suggested by the internet was shut for rebuilding, so found the next nearest one:
Pub: Pitcher and Piano, William IV Street. In: 5:52. Out 5:59 (we were trying to catch up time at this stage)

Leicester Square
Quick walk up to Leicester Square to this massively busy pub.
Pub: The Moon under Water. In: ??. Out: 6:13

Coventry Street
No pub on this street. Didn't fancy the massive queue to get into the Aberdeen Angus steak house. So instead went to Starbucks, which has the advantage of getting food. No beer was a disadvantage.
Pub: Starbucks instead. In: ??. Out: 6:37

Piccadily
Very kindly, the internet had noted that the Waterstones on Piccadily has a bar on the top floor, so we went there. Nice place, pity about the slow service and the hugely expensive bottled beer.
Pub: Waterstones bar. In: ~6:45. Out: 7:16

Regent Street
Didn't know where this pub was on Regent Street, so had to walk along the length. Turned out to be north of Oxford Circus. Somewhere around here, we met another monopoly pub crawler asking where Marlborough Street was and whether it had a pub.
Pub: All Bar One. In: 7:32. Out: 7:44

Oxford Street
Walk to the other end of Oxford Street to:
Pub: The Tottenham. In: ??. Out: 8:14

Bond Street
The internet reported that there is no pub on either new or old Bond Street and some were complaining of tired feet by this stage we believed it and went to the nearest pub.
Pub: The Duke of York, Dering Street. In 8:35. Out: ??

Park Lane
Combination of buses, walking and the dodgy underpass at Marble Arch to get here.
Pub: Rose and Crown, Old Park Lane. In 9:30. Out 9:48

Mayfair
As Mayfair is an area not a street choice was easy. However, it is the only one where I forgot to write down the name of the pub. Fairly sure (from the street map) it was on Hertford Street. (Am later told it was the Shepherd's Tavern.)
Pub: Shepherd's Tavern, Hertford Street. In: 9:58. Out: 10:17

Wow, so we did it!! 22 pubs. Should be noted that we were drinking half pints or single spirits or soft drinks. I don't think there is anyone in the club who could drink 22 pints in a day and still be standing...