Experience the thrills and spills of the classic board game at Monopoly Lifesized.
Yes, putting houses on Old Kent Road is the closest many of us have got to home ownership thus far, but there’s a ray of light on the horizon (nope, it’s not affordable housing). A real-life, full-sized version of Monopoly has opened in London, offering you the chance to hop around the board and build the property empire of your dreams. It’s called Monopoly Lifesized, and is billed as a hybrid of escape rooms, board games, and team challenges – in other words, buckets of fun!
@secret.london Take me to The Top Hat! 🎲🍹 #immersiveexperience #uktravel #mysecretlondon #london #monopoly #secretbar ♬ Blue Blood – Heinz Kiessling & Various Artists
It’s the first of its kind in the world, and there’s plenty to keep you occupied on your quest for world domination here. Taking the Monopoly board as inspiration, the creative team have turned it into so much more; players will need to participate in physical and mental challenges to move around the massive board, such as building London’s landmarks against the clock, solving murder mysteries, or staging a Mayfair heist. Essentially, it takes all your favourite games and smashes them into one rollicking adventure!
Happily, the experience remains entirely familiar to Monopoly fans, thanks to some classic elements of the game. In completing these challenges, you’ll be rewarded with properties and money, all the better to build an empire. Players will experience the thrills of passing Go, the frustration of spending a turn in Jail, gambling on a Chance Card, or scooping a prize on Free Parking.
Four different boards are available for gameplay: Classic, The Vault, City, and a special Junior board for kids aged 5-9, and as many as 24 people can take part, split across four teams each gunning for glory. Every team will have one of the classic Monopoly pieces leading them around the board, past properties, train stations, and utilities. Once you land on a square, you’ll head into the corresponding room in order to complete your challenge, each of which is themed around the area of London it represents.
Monopoly Lifesized has set up shop on Tottenham Court Road – now a property square on the board – in the old Paperchase building. Now renamed ‘The Court’, this three-floor space houses avid gamers all year round, in addition to a Monopoly-themed cocktail bar and restaurant named ‘The Top Hat‘, and a shop selling Monopoly merch. It’s the first in a series of planned live gameplay venues coming to Central London, and whilst we’re keen to see what comes next, I reckon the joys and frustrations of Monopoly Lifesized will keep us plenty occupied for now…
Find Monopoly Lifesized at 213-215 Tottenham Court Road,W1T 7PN. Tickets are on sale now, and you can find them here.
Also published on Medium.
