Monopoly Guide to London for Tourists - #03: The Angel / Euston Rd / Pentonville Rd

Where is it?

I have included these three Monopoly board squares together as geographically (in real life) they run one in to the other, although if you were to start at Angel, as the light blue squares do, you would first reach Pentonville Road, and then Euston road rather than the other way around. If you’re looking at a map, Angel sits approximately 1.5 miles directly north of Blackfriars Bridge and the two other roads run for about 1.8 miles above the West End in central London to Regent’s Park. 

What’s the Story?

‘The Angel’ has the curious distinction of being the only property on the Monopoly board which isn’t either a thoroughfare or area. Although locals to tend to refer to the area as ‘The Angel’ rather than ‘Angel’ (Like the Old Kent Road) it takes its name from a pub which once stood at the crossroads. Apparently in 1935 when Victor Watson (of Waddington’s board game manufacturers) and his secretary Marjory Phillips came on a day trip to London to find the streets they would use for their UK version of the American game, they stopped for lunch at the Angel Café Restaurant (formerly The Angel Inn) and decided to include it on their board. Both Pentonville Road and Euston Road were originally called ‘New Road’ built in the mid 18th century as a bypass for coaches to avoid central London and whisk passengers away from the City to the western suburbs. King’s Cross where the two roads join was at that point a village known as Battle Bridge. 

How do I get there?

Using London’s Underground network:

The Angel – Angel station which boasts the longest escalators in Europe.

Pentonville Road – Either Angel to the east or King’s Cross station to the west. 
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Euston Road – A plethora of Underground station choices beginning with King’s Cross in the east, then heading west; Euston, Euston Square, Warren Street (at the north end of Tottenham Court Road) or Great Portland Street. 

What’s it like now?

Angel is a bit of a mix, but has in recent years become more affluent. The current PM Boris Johnson lived there until last year when he sold his Georgian town house for £3.75 million. I used to know Dan Crawford who founded the King’s Head pub theatre on Upper Street in Angel. It’s a lively street full of pubs, bars, cafes, restaurants and a couple of cinemas. When Dan opened the theatre in 1970 he said that everyone thought he was crazy because the whole street was boarded up and no-one wanted to go there. King’s Cross has undergone a major revamp in the last decade (galvanised by the Eurostar terminal) and had been a red light district. Neither Pentonville Road or Euston Road are particularly pleasant; incredibly busy, choked with traffic and exhaust fumes. They actually form the edge of the congestion charge zone north of central London, so perhaps not surprising.

Where would I stay?

There’s an abundance of hotels in the area, although you might want to avoid the major roads. It’s a bit further south but I seem to have picked people up to do private tours on numerous occasions from the Montague on the Gardens, a hotel right next to the British Museum. If you’re arriving by Eurostar or popping over to Paris, then obviously a hotel close to King’s Cross St. Pancras International would be a good bet. 

​What’s of interest?

The Angel

If you get to Angel and fancy a cuppa, then the Angel Café Restaurant patronised by Victor and Marjory back in 1935 is now a bank, but they do have a plaque commemorating their Monopoly fame. Instead, I’d suggest going to the Candid Café on Torren Street about a minutes walk away. It’s a great little place and is part of a larger arts organisation, accessed through an innocuous doorway on the street and up a couple of flights of stairs. It’s a quirky refuge away from the hustle and bustle outside and I can guarantee that you won’t find another tourist in there (unless of course they’ve read this). 

I’m a big theatre fan and have already mentioned the King’s Head theatre (moving to a new premises next door right now) and just around the corner from them is the world renowned Almeida Theatre. If you’ve got kids then definitely check out what’s on at the Little Angel Theatre, a puppet theatre proving kid and family friendly shows since 1961. It was founded by John Wright, father of Joe Wright; film director (The Darkest Hour, Atonement). 

If antiques and collectables are your thing, then seek out Camden Passage, and for dance enthusiasts then look no further than the nearby Sadler’s Wells, a performing arts theatre specialising in all forms of dance. 

Pentonville Road

If you walk west from ‘The Angel’ you’ll head down Pentoville Road towards King’s Cross. Probably not much to interest tourists, but if you’re a clown (and I do know a couple) then on the right hand side you’ll pass Joseph Grimaldi Park, a former graveyard, named after one of the people buried there in 1837. Grimaldi is known as the father of modern clowning and has been remembered along with musician Charles Didbin with graves adorned with bronze plates which when stepped on, play musical notes. You are quite literally encouraged to dance on someone’s grave. 

King’s Cross has recently undergone a huge period of change and redevelopment and thanks to J.K Rowling and her Harry Potter series, the not particularly exciting King’s Cross station is now a must visit attraction for Harry Potter fans who eagerly queue up to have their photo take pushing a trolley in to a wall on their way to platform 9¾. I went there years ago with some people on a tour, and there wasn’t really anyone there. Now, it’s properly organised.

St Pancras International Station next door is home to the Eurostar. It was a 19th century railway station which was saved from demolition in 1967 in no small part by the poet John Betjeman whose efforts have been rewarded with a great statue inside the station on the first floor concourse. Also look out for work by Tracey Emin and Paul Day’s huge sculpture, ‘The Meeting Place’. 

Directly behind both stations is a former Victorian goods yard which has recently been utterly transformed in to a vibrant area called King's Place, with bars, shops, restaurants and is home to St Martin’s art college. 

If you fancy a nice walk up to Camden (or further) then I can highly recommend a wander up the Regent’s Canal. Maybe visit the London Canal Museum before you do. You’ll pass close to St Pancras Old Church which I think is well worth a visit. It’s considered to be one of the oldest Christian worship sites in Europe but has a fascinating church yard which includes John Soane’s tomb which Giles Gilbert Scott used as inspiration for his winning design of the now iconic red telephone box, and is the back drop to a body snatching scene in Charles Dickens’ ‘A Tale of Two Cities’. Perhaps most intriguing is ‘The Hardy Tree’. In the late 1860s a young Thomas Hardy was working for the architect firm allocated the sensitive job of exhuming remains from the burial ground so as to build a railway line in to the nearby station. Hardy got the thankless job and arranged hundreds of gravestones around an ash tree, which remains there to this day. 

​Euston Road

The British Library regularly has paying exhibitions, but I highly recommend popping in to their free permanent exhibition, the treasures of which reveal 2000 years of human experience through books, manuscripts and sound recordings. You can expect the oldest religious texts from around the world, original scores from renowned composers, handwritten drafts of novels by your favourite authors, Shakespeare’s first folio or Beatles lyrics jotted down on the back of Julian Lennon’s first birthday card. 

The Wellcome Collection is a fascinating museum just opposite Euston Station, exploring the connection between medicine, life and art, advertising themselves as the “free destination for the incurably curious”. 

Just around the corner is the Grant Museum of Zoology, a natural history museum founded in 1828 and is part of University College London, originally formed as a teaching collection. It’s one of the oldest natural history collections in the UK and houses nearly 70,000 specimens. 

If you’re in the mood for bypassing the West End shows and sampling some theatre from innovative, early career practitioners, then why not get a ticket to a show at the New Diorama Theatre, an 80-seat theatre, nestling in the midst of a particularly unexciting modern office development. 

Finally, as you reach Great Portland street Station you’ll find yourself on the edge of Regent’s Park, one of London’s Royal Parks, at the north end of which you’ll find ZSL London Zoo. 

Russell Square

If you walk directly south of Euston Station for about 10 minutes, you’ll get to Russell Square. Much of the area just to the west is dominated by the British Museum, which many people I meet factor in to their time in London. I often get asked questions during correspondence with people who have booked a tour with me. One such question was “How long will it take us to se everything in the British Museum?” There’s about 8 million artefacts, so I wouldn’t worry about trying to see everything. They do offer ‘Around the world in 90-minute’ tours which take in the biggies as well as a few less known objects, so joining one of those might be a good start. 

I just wanted to mention a few other museums that are very close to the British Museum and perhaps not on every visitor’s radar. The first is on Russell Square itself and is situated in a house. It’s called the Weiner Holocaust Library and formed in 1933 is one of the world’s most extensive archives on the Holocaust and Nazi era. A great many people use it for research purposes, but on the ground floor they have a small changing exhibition which if you ring the buzzer they’ll be more than happy for you to view. A bit further down the road is the Foundling Museum, established in 1739 by Thomas Coram as Britain’s first home for children at risk of abandonment. If their display of ‘tokens’ (which parents left as a way of identifying their child should they wish to return and reclaim them) doesn’t bring a tear to your eye, then I don’t know what will. Close by is the Charles Dickens Museum on Doughty Street; a former residence of the great author and his family, and as you might expect is a mine of Dickens paraphernalia and treasures. Close by in Clerkenwell (a fascinating area in its own right) is the Postal Museum which along with other post related exhibits, gives you a ride along a 1km stretch of mail rail. 

The Hardy Tree - St Pancras Old Church

The British Museum

The Foundling Museum - Tokens

The Meeting Place by Paul Day

Also in the series:

#00 – Introduction
#01 – Old Kent Road
#02 – Whitechapel Road