Why is Vine Street on the Monopoly Board?

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Vine Street, W1 is easily the most obscure property on the London version of the Monopoly board.

Compared to other properties such as King’s Cross Station, Marylebone Station, Piccadilly, the Old Kent Road, Regent Street and so on, it’s hardly a household name and, in reality, Vine Street appears to be nothing more than a little dead end, used as a service area for a hotel and other businesses.

There’s a lot more to Vine Street than meets the eye though… and in this video we’ll be looking at its intriguing history- including, of course, the reason why it ended up on the Monopoly board!

Chapters:

0:00 Intro
02:19 The London Version of Monopoly
04:28 The History of Vine Street
06:51 A Bizarre Death…
10:09 Why Vine Street?
11:22 Vine Street Police Station
18:27 Outro

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Credits:

Music used in this video:

The Entertainer (E’s Jammy Jams)

Swipesy Cakewalk (E’s Jammy Jams)

Forest Lullaby (Asher Fulero)

Pirouette (Asher Fulero)

Beseeched (Asher Fulero)

The Easy Winners (E’s Jammy Jams)

Faultlines (Asher Fulero)

Organ Grinder’s Song (Will Osborne and His Orchestra)

Smokey’s Lounge (TrackTribe)

Images:

Monopoly board video: pixabay.com

Victor Watson image: thoresby.org.uk

Angel Islington Monopoly Plaque: London Remembers

St James’s Concert Hall: Victorianweb.org

Historic maps: David Rumsey and the National Library of Scotland
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50 thoughts on “Why is Vine Street on the Monopoly Board?”

  1. Thanks so much for watching! If you had the chance to design the London Monopoly board from scratch, what properties would you include? Please be sure to let me know in the comments….

    Reply

  3. Always worth the wait … another perfectly-formed little gem from Rob. I've not lived in London for many years, but his rambles through the streets and history always create a pang if nostalgia. Thank you, Rob.

    Reply

  8. Thank you Rob – yet another fascinating video. I'm very interested in the sites of now demolished buildings, especially in central London – trying to imagine the scene at each location in times past. Your impeccable research is therefore greatly appreciated!

    Reply

  11. I’m a fairly new subscriber and I love your videos! They are all so interesting! If I ever get back to London from the US, I will look up theses places. When you mentioned that Dilly Cafe, the old song Lavender’s blue, dilly dilly…….popped into my head. I’ll have to look at my OED to see what it means! ❣️

    Reply

  14. Rob I am sure you are to young to remember a radio show called listen with Mother. As children when it came on the radio we would be settled down with a mug of milk and some cake or biscuits to listen to the story, Well now 50 years later on the opposite side of the world I find my self doing the same thing when I see you have uploaded. Make a nice cup of tea piece of fruit cake and settle into the armchair to enjoy your story. such a relaxing pleasure, coming from close to Harrow your accent takes me back and adds to the London vibe.

    Reply

  17. Huh, I only knew of Vine Street as the location of a police station. It has a rather evocative picture of the station's lamp at the entrance in my husbands' old book, "Haunted Britain," written in 1973. It was reputed to be haunted by the ghost of Station-Seargent Goddard, who committed suicide by hanging himself in the cells; no further details provided.

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  19. Rob, greetings to you again from Thailand, oh Monopoly as kids my brother always had to be the Banker and sometimes games went on for days. As always yet again very interesting and thought provoking video. August 1993 I was actually working on a farm in Buckinghamshire a little more than a stones throw from Leatherslade farm , the concrete track in those was mud and there lies a story of its own. Looking out for the next video

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  22. Hi Rob my old friend, you sure threw the dice and landed on 6, even skipping out of jail without a penalty!! I learnt stuff too! On a few times in my misspent youth on mu weekends trips to London I stayed at the Piccadilly Hotel on Piccadilly Circus it was easy to get mistaken for a rent lad of you stayed leaning too long on the 'meat rack' of the roadside fence 😲 All great days of my carefree years sighhhhhh. Cheers matey DougT

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  36. Fantastic as always Rob me old mucker! That whole Vine Street- Little Vine Street switcheroo seems like much ado about nothing, a very strange affair!
    With love from Yorkshire x

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  39. Hi Rob
    Thoroughly enjoyed that one, I know all of the areas you mentioned, but once again, you have shown me the history, as with all your videos, I always make a point of driving past the locations,
    Thank you
    All the best
    Mike

    Reply

  41. Fabulous video so interesting ..It's very nostalgic for me as I used to live in London for a good few years and will be fascinating for me to see your other video's ..Subscribed and Thankyou 😊

    Reply

  43. The only thing I know about Vine Street is that there was a Police Station there. It was also regarded, by some people, to be haunted by the ghost of a policeman who hanged himself in the cells. The atmosphere in some parts of the place was said to be unpleasantly oppressive, and gloomy. (even after it re-opened in the 1970's). I was told this by my late mother, who was a Metropolitan Police 'Special', in the mid 1950's. She never believed in ghosts or the supernatural, but the fact the story was told to her by stolid, unimaginative Policemen of the 'old school', who just stated it as fact, and were not trying to scare a 20 year old girl. The station was closed by the time mum was in the met, but she said she went to lots of places that just felt 'wrong', for no apparent reason, whilst on the beat and, being a tremendously rational person, it annoyed her that she could never find out why.

    Reply

  46. I've never been to London & odds are I never shall, but I love your channel! My Grandfather, a veteran of the Royal Field Artillery in the Great War, used to tell me where all the good pubs were. Of course, most of them had been bombed out during the Blitz. My Mum lived through the Blitz. I love learning the history of London.

    Reply

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