Firstly I’d like to get something out of the way. In the description of this post I promised to explain why I chose to peruse this endeavour– however I have a confession to make.
I have no idea why I did this and I also think this has cost me at least £30 in transport expenses so it hasn’t been without it’s costs. Well, actually, I think the main reason I did this is because I thought it would make an ✨interesting✨ instagram highlight.
Planning
The first phase of this project– and one I’m incredibly glad I bothered with is the planning.
Google Maps
Firstly I used my Monopoly board to select every property feasible– for example so I excluded boxes such as the electric company and water works (although I considered visiting a Thames Water office).
Following this I placed every property into a google maps list (which you can see for yourself here)
Route planning
Using the map I created I saw that most locations were densely clustered around Covent Garden and Leicester Square so I therefore created a route to walk from Covent station, and to finish at Leicester Square.
The Project Begins
I originally planned to take 3 photos of various angles (one of the street sign, one of the monopoly card with the street sign, and one of us with the monopoly card and the street sign) but quickly fell into a groove of just taking a lot of pictures and planning to sort them out later.
Further deviating from the plan I did not start from Covent Garden station but instead from Westminster Bridge simply because that’s where I was when I decided to begin the project. Overally these didn’t really make much of a difference to the overall task and I was able to, in a weekend, complete all by 9 properties.
Difficulties encountered
Certain properties were outside of places I normally visited or the range of other properties (namely Old Kent Road) so these were reserved until another weekend.
Of course in the end I had to make the journeys as I had decided to complete this project prior to my moving for university on the 18th September.
Favourite Moments
I chose to complete this project with a few of my friends on different days, and I did most of the work with my friend Georgina, and here’s us at vine street;
I also took the opportunity to visit both 221b Baker street as well as 187 New Gower Street which is where the BBC Sherlock adaptation was filmed. I’m glad I did this because for all my time in London I never took the time to do some of my more touristy endeavours.
Ignore how windswept I look here – it was incredibly windy and I was not expecting it 😭
I made some good effort with other properties the week after meeting Georgina– this time with another of my friends, Taj, and here’s a photo Taj took of me in Mayfair;
Posting my stories & closing thoughts
Since I had 24 stories to make I decided to make them in photoshop and then post them to avoid the pain of trying to construct that many stories on instagram– one is frustrating enough 😭
My main conclusion however is that as I was finishing this project I wonder if and how I could have done it better– could I have taken more uniform images? Does this matter? Did I take the most effective route? How much did it actually cost 😭?
Days spent holding monopoly cards to random signs: 8
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