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

by Nicholas Boys Smith

From the medieval cobbles, through Dickensian iron and fog, to the neon lights and bustle of the twenty-first century, the ever-changing streets of London map out the vibrant stories, triumphs and struggles of everyone who ever called London home.

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.

But those Monopoly streets live and breathe - they don't just illuminate our history. They open up whole new ways of thinking about it. The mobs have taken to our streets. The overlords have taken them back. Wars have spilled out into them. Lovers have snuck around them, and fires have raged through them.

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.

You may think you know the history of London. You don't. Or at least, not entirely. This is the story of the capital as you've never, quite, heard it before.

Genres: History, London

304 pages, Hardcover

Published November 10, 2022

Reviews

[Amber · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book wasn’t what I thought it was going to be. From the title & the premise I thought it was going to be a more colloquial look at the history of London’s Monopoly streets. However while the history is discussed, the tone is far from colloquial. Think more David Starkey or Peter Ackroyd rather than Dan Jones.

The book goes a lot into the history of place names & uses a lot of more complex language (eg liberal entrepôt) but intersperses it with funny and grim tales of people who were key figures in some of these streets. 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.

[Breige · Rating 4 out of 5]

No Free Parking starts with a brief introduction to how the London Monopoly streets were most likely chosen, before tackling each street (and utilties and rail) one by one. At first I didn't understand the order the books was laid out, it's not by the colours, but rather is starts with streets and locations that have the oldest history to the streets whose history doesn't span as long a time.

The writing style is quite literary or formal. I think based on the cover or the title I expected something more conversational or more colloquial. I did enjoy it, once I adjusted my expectations from 'interesting fun, fact book with history' to 'history book'. There isn't much by way of the streets as they are now, though it is briefly touched on.

The history of these streets can be pretty samey (rich white men buying and developing property), especially as there isn't many famous landmarks on these 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.

If you're a fan of Peter Ackroyd books or want to know more about London streets, then you may enjoy this.

[Stewart Morris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written history book using an interesting theme to connect it all together. Would have massively benefitted from a few maps though! Given the book is so focused on places, it was quite hard to visualise how all the different areas fit together (and map them onto modern London) with no maps.

[Amanda Witt · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great look at the history behind the names of what have become well known streets, thanks to the board game