Mick's Monopoly challenge

          An oddity of the many versions of the Monopoly board is that, irrespective of which city is featured, the policeman is always American cop Edgar Mallory as pictured in the original Atlantic City version.       But I digress. I’ve contrived to use this square as an excuse to visit the area of the South Bank between Clink Street and Tower Bridge. The reasoning will soon become apparent. Clink Prison Museum, Clink Street Winchester Palace, Clink Street The Golden Hinde, Cathedral Street      This is actually a full-scale reconstruction of The Golden Hinde, the galleon on which Sir Francis Drake became the first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe. When Drake first set off from Plymouth in 1577 the ship was called The Pelican. He renamed her mid-voyage and returned home in 1580.      Launched in 1973, this floating museum has itself sailed more than 225,000 kilometres. She has done a circumn...

                 93-99 Park Lane      Just a few residential houses remain, the most striking being a row of bow-fronted homes with Chinese  balconies constructed in 1828. Benjamin Disraeli lived at number 93 from his marriage in 1839 until the death of his wife in 1872.       Despite the traffic noise, it still costs a fortune to live on Park Lane, some of the kudos doubtless thanks to its position on the Monopoly board. So you need a run-around to get from A to B ….         ….. like a Lamborghini, or a McLaren, or a Ferrari ….      …… or a Rolls Royce with a parking ticket, tee hee. Marble Arch     The once-imposing Marble Arch was dwarfed in the winter of 2021-22 by a new tourist attraction, the much-maligned Marble Arch Mound.      It was supposed to cost £5 to climb the Mound, or take the lift. But at the time of writing you could boo...