England Project - 2022 Monopoly Challenge

Date: 15 Dec 2022 [unknown]
Location: London, England, United Kingdom

To celebrate our achievements in 2022, the England Project is hosting our first Monopoly Challenge—a stroll through the bustling streets of London, as we create and improve WikiTree profiles.

We have dusted off the England Project's Monopoly board, put a little sellotape on the back to hold it together, and it's all set up a for a game.

The challenge begins at "GO" with £200, ready for us to roll the dice to take us to our first location. Our adventure is set near the end of the 19th century, and at each stop we will work together to create, source and connect the profiles of two people we meet there. We will visit 10 locations, rolling the dice again once we finish each location.

Join the fun! You can stay for just one roll, or all ten—it's up to you.

The instructions

1. This is not a race. It's just a stroll around the streets of London. All England Project members are welcome to join us.
2. You can join or leave at any time. Come to as many locations as you wish. To join us at a location, add your name to its list of players in the following format [[WikiTree-ID|Your name]]
3. Work with the other players to add sources, create a bio and connect the two people we meet at the location. We will be using the #project-challenges channel on Discord to coordinate ourselves so we're not all trying to edit the same profile at once.
4. When you and your fellow players have finished each profile, add a 🎲 to its status section.
5. We will then roll the dice again and move to the next location along with anyone else who wishes come along too.
6. All participants will be awarded a participant's sticker to add to their own profile:
   

Contents 1 Players 2 Roll #1 - Whitechapel Road 3 Roll #2 - Whitehall 4 Roll #3 - Community Chest 5 Roll #4 - Fleet Street 6 Roll #5 - Jail 7 Roll #6 - Marlborough Street 8 Roll #7 - Piccadilly 9 Roll #8 - Community Chest 10 Roll #9 - Park Lane 11 Roll #10 - Kings Cross Station 12 Thank you!

Players

Ian S, SusieO, Elizabeth, FrancescaM, Kaitlyn, Chris, Marjorie, Hilary (Buckle) Gadsby, Carol K, Steve Whitfield, Maddy Hardman, Jo Fitz, Fran, Heather B, Denise, Chris O'C, Kathy Nava, Christine, Dave, Jules H, Jo-Anne (Ross) Riolfo, [[WikiTree-ID|Your name]]

Roll #1 - Whitechapel Road

Roll #1 is complete!

We move 3 spaces and stop outside the Red Lion tavern at number 103 and the refreshment rooms at 105 Whitechapel Road.

Relax, have a bite to eat, and a drink or two. We won't roll the dice again until we have created, written a bio and connected profiles for the proprietors of both establishments:

Profile 1

Joseph Stephen Munn

Landlord of the Red Lion in 1891

Birthplace: Kent

Hints: His wife's name was Charlotte.

Status: Profile is Munn-2723. Needs bio and connecting. Bio completed, will show as connected on 16 December,🎲

Profile 2

Secundus Glendining

Proprietor of refreshment rooms at No. 105 in 1891

Birthplace: London

Hints: Don't forget to check for spelling variants!

Status: profile is Glendining-54. Needs bio and connecting, bio completed, will show as connected on 16 December 🎲

Roll #2 - Whitehall

Roll #2 is complete!

Move 10 spaces. Arriving in Whitehall, we ask a fresh-faced young clerk for directions to the Circumlocution Office. He points up the street and so we keep walking until we reach the Home Office.

We climb the stairs and meet two of HM's Inspectors for Factories, civil servants in the Home Office:

Profile 1

James B Lakeman

Inspector of Factories, based at Whitehall in 1891

Birthplace: Devon

Status: Bio is James B Lakeman (1829-) - Done, will show as connected 17 Dec 🎲

Profile 2

Thomas Shipman Oswald (1839-1891)

Inspector of Factories, based at Nottingham in 1891

Birthplace: Kent

Status: Thomas Shipman Oswald (1839-1891). Connected (will show as connected on 17 Dec). 🎲

Roll #3 - Community Chest

Roll #3 is complete!

Move 4 spaces to Community Chest.

You have won second prize in a beauty contest. Collect £10.

First prize was won by Miss Ivy Lillian Close, who became known as "England's Fairest" after winning the great Daily Mirror beauty contest in 1908.

The third prize winner is not recorded. Instead. we will be improving and connecting a profile for Cinderella Rose, of South London. She mightn't have won a beauty contest, but she has a name worthy of a Disney Princess!

Profile 1

Ivy Lillian Close

Beauty contest winner and actress

Birthplace: County Durham

Hints: You will find her in Wikipedia here: Ivy Close

Status: Ivy Lilian Close (abt.1890-1968) needs bio, sources, connection. Biography completed, family members added, will show as connected on 17 December 🎲

Profile 2

Cinderella Rose

Birthplace: Bristol

Hints In 1901, she was living in Wandsworth, South London, with her husband Thomas Rose and their children.

Status: Is this her, Buckland-113? Needs more investigation!. Sources added to bio, she has a husband and parents, and is already connected 🎲

Roll #4 - Fleet Street

Roll #4 is complete!

Move 6 spaces. We stop for refreshments at Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, a Grade II listed public house at 145 Fleet Street, on Wine Office Court. Known for its literary connections, the pub's regular patrons included Charles Dickens, G.K. Chesterton and Mark Twain.

Profile 1

Beaufoy Alfred Moore

Licensee. His anecdotes were collected together and published as The Book of the Cheese - Being Traits and Stories of Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese.

Birthplace: Birmingham

Hints: He died in 1886.

Status: His profile is Moore-78121. Profile written, spouse added, he will show as connected on 18 December 🎲

Profile 2

R.R.D. Adams

Journalist and one of the editors of The Book of the Cheese.

Birthplace: Middlesex

Hints: He studied at Cambridge.

Status: No profile. This is Robert Richard Dolbey Adams, born in 1849 in Harrow, Middlesex. His profile is Adams-62055. Connected 🎲

Roll #5 - Jail

Roll #5 is complete!

Move 7 spaces. Go to Jail! Go directly to Jail, do not pass Go, do not collect £200.

We get hand-cuffed, shoved into the back of a Black Maria, and begin our journey. After rattling through the cobblestone streets, we arrive at HM Prison Pentonville.

Our cellmates are:

Profile 1

Samuel West Thomas Arthurs

Aged 40, painter. Sentenced to two months' hard labour for unlawfully marrying Emma Adams during the life of his wife.

Hints: Convicted at the Old Bailey on 3 May 1886. A transcript of the proceedings is here.

Status: Samuel West Thomas Arthurs, profile created, and connected to his father, will show as connected on 18 December 🎲

Profile 2

Frederick William Wingfield

Aged 19, letter carrier. Sentenced to one month's hard labour for unlawfully failing to deliver 42 letters while employed in the Post Office.

Hints: He pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey on 3 May 1886. The proceedings are here.

Status: Wingfield-1326, bio complete, family members added, will connect 18 December 🎲

Roll #6 - Marlborough Street

Roll #6 is now complete.

We rolled doubles -- so get out of Jail!

We move 8 spaces and head straight to the Shakespeare's Head at 29 Great Marlborough Street. A sign out the front says the pub was built in 1735 and originally owned by Thomas and John Shakespeare, distant relatives of the celebrated poet.

Profile 1

Mrs Sarah Byard

Landlady in 1881

Birthplace: Yorkshire

Hints: In 1881, she was a widow, aged 50, and living with her daughter and three sons.

Status: Bateman-4433 bio completed, will connect tomorrow 19 Dec 🎲

Profile 2

Alphonso Sigismund Redrup

Died at the Shakespeare's Head in 1874.

Birthplace: Buckinghamshire

Status: profile created, parents and other family members added, will connect on 19 December 🎲

Roll #7 - Piccadilly

Roll #7 is now complete!

Move 11 spaces to Piccadilly. We stop at St James Restaurant & Tavern, an upmarket tavern at 24-28 Piccadilly, St James, Westminster.

We are served by two young barmaids:

Profile 1

Kate Matilda Butler

Barmaid in 1881

Birthplace: Kent

Status: Kate Matilda Butler (bef.1857-) completed and connected 🎲

Profile 2

Caroline Louise Couling

Barmaid in 1881

Birthplace: London

Status: Profile: Couling-333.will connect 20 Dec 🎲

Roll #8 - Community Chest

Roll # 8 is now complete!

Move 4 spaces to Community Chest.

Doctor’s fee. Pay £50.

We paid for the services of two eminent 19th century London physicians:

Profile 1

Dame Mary Scharlieb

Pioneer female physician and gynaecologist

Birthplace: Middlesex

Hints: Her Wikipedia article is here: Mary Scharlieb.

Status: Mary Ann Dacomb Bird (1845-) Profile completed and connected 🎲

Profile 2

George Fielding Blandford

Psychiatrist and author of Insanity and its Treatment (1871)

Birthplace: Wiltshire

Hints: His Wikipedia article is here: George Fielding Blandford.

Status: George Fielding Blandford (bef.1829-) needs bio, sources and connecting. Profile completed and connected 🎲

Roll #9 - Park Lane

Roll # 9 is now complete!

Move 4 spaces. We stop at 35 Park Lane, the fashionable residence of Countess Grosvernor, and ring the bell to ask if her ladyship is at home. The footman takes one look and ushers us around to the servants' entrance, where a housemaid invites us in for a glass of milk.

Profile 1

Alice Perkins

Housemaid in 1891

Birthplace: Hampshire

Status: Alice Perkins (1867-). Connected 🎲

Profile 2

William Frederick Pratt

Footman in 1891

Birthplace: Norfolk

Status:William Frederick Pratt Profile created, parents added and connected 🎲

Roll #10 - Kings Cross Station

Roll # 10 is now underway!

Move 8 spaces. Pass Go, collect £200, and we are at Kings Cross Station. The Great Northern Hotel, which opened in 1854 in King's Cross, was the world's first great railway hotel.

Profile 1

Richard Mellson

Station Master at Kings Cross in 1901

Birthplace: Lincolnshire

Status: Richard Mellson, now created, complete and will connect 23 Dec 🎲

Profile 2

Mrs Elizabeth Meyer

Manageress of the Great Northern Hotel in 1901

Birthplace: Yorkshire

Hints: She was the widow of Francois Xavier Nicholas Meyer

Status: Profile created, many family members added, will connect on 24 December 🎲

Thank you!

After a final round of drinks at the Great Northern Hotel, we head into Kings Cross station in search of platform 9¾. The bustling crowd swallows us up and and we are bundled aboard a waiting steam locomotive. The doors close behind us and, with a blast of its whistle and a jolt, the train pulls away from the platform. As Kings Cross disappears from view and the train gathers speed, we hear this announcement:

"Thank you for joining us for the England Project's 2022 Monopoly Challenge.
Have a happy and safe festive season and we look forward to seeing you again in 2023!"

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England Project | England Project Challenges