80 years on: How the Monopoly board looks using today’s prices

To celebrate the property trading boardgame’s 80th birthday, the Monopoly board has been updated with 2015 prices for each area of London – leading to some surprises

Monopoly, originally patented as The Landlord’s Game, was conceived in 1903 by Elizabeth J. Phillips as an educational economic tool to illustrate the bad effects of land monopolism and demonstrate the effectiveness of the land value tax to remedy them.

While it’s debatable whether or not its lessons have been heeded by subsequent generations of players the game provides a valuable early lesson in the need to be ruthless when dealing in the London property market.

Updated by Mayfair estate agent, Hanover, who have found (unsurprisingly) that Mayfair remains the most expensive district with an average property price of £3,521,800, the board shows some unexpected changes.

Brown areas Old Kent Road and Whitechapel may remain next to go with average prices of £261,499 and £379,800 respectively, but who’d have thought that blue Angel Islington would be nearly £60,000 more expensive than green Bond Street?

Meanwhile, Camden’s Euston Road has experienced an upturn in fortune, jumping up an entire side of the board.