The Concept

I first had the idea of photographing the locations on the Monopoly board back in 2018 when I was travelling down to London most weeks. The idea was that having a focus would give me something to do in the evenings rather than simply sitting at my desk or getting distracted by the many social opportunities on offer.

Needless to say I managed to shoot about three locations before sitting at my desk or getting distracted by the many social opportunities on offer. The idea, however, continued to sit on my ToDo list as a vague aspiration while my irritation at not making any progress grew. So, at the start of this summer I decided to bite the bullet and make a proper start on the project. I booked cheap flights and a Premier Inn Hub with the intention of starting the project.

However, I’m nothing if not ambitious. Or, put another way, I’m nothing if not entirely oblivious to the practicalities of any undertaking. In my head , then, I extended the scope to cover the entire enterprise in a single visit. I’ve reflected on the stupidity of that decision subsequently, but against expectation I did manage to get a full set of images. Perhaps not the greatest set of images, but enough to cross this off my list for now. I am pleased.

Presentation

I had the idea of presenting the images on a mock-up of the Monopoly board fairly early on. Unfortunately, as I found out later the board has obviously not been designed for the purposes of photo displays, so I’ve broken the images down into sets below. Individually, I don’t think that there are too many that stand in their own right. Collectively, however, I think they’re quite fun!

Given the desire to present these as part of a larger composite, it was quite important that there was consistency across the images. The square format obviously means that each image occupies the same amount of real estate on the board squares (it could have been 5x4 portrait, but square worked slightly better). The choice of black and white adds further consistency and simplifies the project by removing the need to match colour palettes. The central image is just one I like taken on the same trip - instantly recognisable as London.

The Properties

The panels below show the individual images from the trip, starting with the main properties on the board.

*The cheapest properties on the board. Old Kent Road is a real pain to get to as it’s so far from the other locations. The Church Bell Foundry is a quirky spot.*

*The blues are quite spread out. Pubs (Pentonville Road) proved to be a good option.*

*These are all quite close together, but with the exception of Whitehall there aren’t too many obvious locations. Monuments provide good clues.*

The option for Bow Street is very obvious. Marlborough Street doesn’t actually exist (I think Great Marlborough Street was too long for the board), while Vine Street almost doesn’t exist. It’s 70 yards long and your prospects of building three houses and a hotel on there are nil to naff all. It’s also visually dreadful.

*No shortage of options for the red squares. All three have plenty of well-known landmarks, which allowed me to focus on some detail. There’s two street signs here…*

This may be the weakest set of three. Leicester Square and Picadilly are incredibly busy and there are probably better images available first thing or later in the day. Coventry Street is really just a link street between Picadilly Circus and Leicester Square.

*There are a number of obvious landmarks along these streets. Bond Street is, however, another Waddington construct as it’s an amalgam of New Bond Street and Old Bond Street.*

*Park Lane has a couple of obvious, notable locations. Mayfair is an area rather than a street - the image here is in Grosvenor Square.*

Stations and Utilities

When I originally planned this undertaking the idea was that I’d stop at the main properties. However, these only comprise around half of the board (22 of 40 squares), so it feels quite incomplete. The stations are an obvious addition; the utilities are then the only two squares up for purchase so it’s again obvious to add these two locations.

*I’m quite pleased with both the Kings Cross and Liverpool Street images. The two other stations are a bit of a cop-out but complete the set.*

The two utilities are not specific, named locations so that presents a degree of flexibility. Battersea Power Station is an obvious location for the Electric Company. Although a little out of the way it’s a good location and well worth revisiting. I have a couple of other images from this location that didn’t work for this project. The waterworks image is a complete fudge; it’s a fountain in St James Park. There are a couple of Victorian pumping stations that would make a good location, but for this trip they would have been too much of a detour. They could be on the list for a future trip…

Corners and Other Stuff

Adding the locations above into the mix moves me up to 28 of 40 squares. I thought is should be possible to grab something for the four corner squares, which leaves Chance, Community Chest (three squares each) and two tax squares to complete the set.

I initially wrote down ‘Ha ha ha’ next to Free Parking, but I thought the image here worked. ‘Go’ works anywhere, while both the Jail squares are shot down the appropriately named Clink Street.

*The final three images; a community centre in South England, a casino on Leicester Square and the Revenue building on Whitehall. All these images were used more than one*

Planning

There were a few points over the two days shooting where I thought I’d lost the plot! That said, I did have the good sense to do a little planning beforehand, particularly around how to group the locations to avoid too much travel between locations. The purist approach might have been to start at ‘Go’ and go around by board order. If I lived in London this might work, but it wasn’t going to work for a two day hit. The map below hopefully shows that while some locations are clustered, there are a few outliers.

*The four locations towards the corners; Old Kent Road, Battersea Power Station, Marylebone Station and Whitechapel Road were the start points for route planning.*

Old Kent Road and Battersea Power Station were particularly problematic. I decided to tackle these first as, if I did start to run short on time, the temptation to scrap them would be too strong. Old Kent Road, in particular, is an area that I’d be unlikely to visit if I were down in London in the future, whereas the central locations could be covered as part of a later trip with Helen.

What didn’t help was the fact that the flight down was delayed by close to two hours. By the time I’d done Old Kent Road and Battersea on the first day it was already well into the afternoon. Happily I managed to make up time thereafter, although there was a fair chunk of walking involved (75k steps over the two days).

I think that without a clear route plan I’d have lost heart fairly early on; as it was my confidence started to grow that I could complete the board started to grow towards the end of day one.

Kit

The other obvious point to make is that since I was carrying my kit all day I needed to keep it as light as possible. For a day trip I’d have got by with a single camera and lens; for two days I needed a change of clothes, toiletries and a small laptop. I also took a second infrared body and a wide lens as there were a couple of other shots that I wanted along the way. Overall it was manageable, but I was definitely starting to flag towards the end. I think I earned my cold cider waiting for the train to the airport!

The Images

Having a clear idea of not only the locations, but the types of shot helped me throughout the day. I wanted the image from each location to be identifiable - there’s a temptation with some, I think, to be obscure but that wouldn’t work here. The shots would have location labels I and felt that I needed to be able to tie each image back to where it was shot. On the whole I think I’ve succeeded; I only have one which I think is an outright fail.

Having a clear idea that each image would be square and monochrome at the outset also helped with subject selection and composition. I do have a couple of quite pleasant colour versions, but the project needs that consistency of approach. It’s certainly been educational going through the planning and execution of this project.

Bonus Shots

The shot I’ve placed in the centre of the board was a real bonus from the trip and one with which I’m pleased. I also managed a couple of shots from around the Lloyds building and the photograph of the Shard below. This was high on my list of non-Monopoly targets.

*The Shard*
Fujifilm X-T3 720nm IR Conversion | 13mm F/7.1 10s ISO160

Final Thoughts

I’m very pleased I did the trip, and I’m doubly pleased to have come back with a complete set of images. Looking forward, I can now tinker with the board whenever I’m down in London, improving on one or two shots with the luxury of a little more time in each location.

Planning was essential to getting this done in a couple of days, but it is the sort of project that could be done locally and with the luxury of time. Documenting a train route, for example, or local landmarks could be another option.

I think it was also important to have a vision of the final presentation; having a clear idea of the type of image, the format and the processing helped me when taking the shots. I certainly think that while the process here was quite intense, it’s a mindset that I can take through into other projects.

I hope you enjoy.

Monopoly - Around the Board