Leeds Monopoly Board Game

Product Information

In 1935 Monopoly was first patented in the USA and Waddington's published a British edition based on London streets.This special limited edition based on Leeds was published by John Waddington Ltd., possibly to celebrate the centenary of the City of Leeds in 1993. John Waddington started off as a theatrical printer in Leeds in 1896 and the firm began printing playing cards in 1921. The game "Monopoly" owes its genesis to an American Quaker woman who believed in the common ownership of land. By 1935 when the Parker Bros in Philadelphia acquired the rights to the game, it had become the embodiment of capitalist speculation. The British rights to the game were acquired by the Leeds firm of Waddingtons in 1935 and the slightly bizarre choice of London streets was based on a flying visit to the capital by one of the firm's employees. Since then the game has been customised to many cities and institutions, including this Leeds edition. Waddington's are also reputed to have smuggled silk escape maps to British prisoners of war inside Monopoly sets. Waddingtons were taken over by the US firm of Hasbro in the 1990s. And now, this is where we come in as game designers are asking for people from the area to help design the landmarks, playing pieces and customised cards that will be featured in the game. Waddingtons was a British manufacturer of card and board games. The company was founded by John Waddington of Leeds, England and the manager, actor and playwright Wilson Barrett, under the name Waddingtons Limited. The name was changed in 1905 to John Waddington Limited, then Waddington's House of Games, then Waddington Games, and finally just Waddingtons. In a letter written in 1933/34 by Winston Churchill, he thanked Waddingtons for a game of Monopoly that he was sent. He described the game as “most interesting”. Death of Mr Monopoly, Yorkshire businessman Victor Watson, at 86, The Yorkshire Post, 26 February 2015

We decided to dine at the hotel, and ate in the Queens Bar where the atmosphere was great. The staff was so lovely and attentive and the food was very tasty. In fact we spent some time chatting with David the operations manager, he was fantastic with the boys, they thought he was hilarious. Now I know you will say; yes but you got lots of fuss due to being Q Hotel Ambassadors, but I watched David and he spent time chatting to every single guest in that bar whilst we dined. John Keen-Tomlinson from Winning Moves, said: “We are very excited by the challenge of putting this unique board for the Yorkshire Dales together.” During World War II Waddingtons helped prisoners of war by hiding escape maps pinned on silk inside the games. The tokens were made out of real gold and real money was put with the monopoly money, once it was found out that German guards were not searching the boxes themselves. This was achieved by MI9 and Waddingtons working together to produce the games and setting up fake aid charites, sending both regular aid and escapee maps hidden in everyday objects such as cards, pens and of course board games. But more recently, new versions of the game have been released for places such as Leeds, Sheffield, Harrogate and more. Image: Winning Moves UKIt has been revealed that a brand new version of the board game Monopoly is to be based on the beautiful Yorkshire Dales. David Thornton, Leeds: A Historical Dictionary of People, Places and Events (Huddersfield: Northern Heritage Publications, 2013), s.v. WADDINGTONS.

But now, manufacturers Winning Moves UK have said that the Yorkshire Dales is getting it’s own board and we are absolutely buzzing about it. We loved our Queens visit. The boys’ felt thoroughly spoilt, but extra treats aside that were all so so special. The Queens is a wonderful warm friendly hotel. The location is just perfect, next door to the train station, in the heart of Leeds in skipping distance to amazing shops, restaurants and amazing attractions including the Leeds Armories, and amazing museums.The next morning Jacquie had arranged for us to have tour around Leeds with a lovely lady called Beverly from The Leeds visitors Centre. This was just incredible, in fact we learnt so much about Leeds and what is available for families that I am going to share this in another post. But what I will say is Beverly was amazing, we all loved the tour and can’t wait to visit Leeds again. It has been suggested that the game was invented by a woman that lived in Washington DC in 1903 called Elizabeth Margie. Elizabeth owned her own house, worked for a living and was not married which was unusual for women at the time. The game that she invented was called the landlords game. The purpose of this game was to educate people on her political views. We also had a lovely gift, Monopoly the Leeds edition to help us get our bearings of the town. This was very warmly welcomed but caused some conflict later on in the evening when we played; I felt I should automatically be given the Queens Hotel card in my official capacity as Q Hotel Family Ambassador, but the men in my life pointed out it was a role I would not have if it wasn’t for them. Any way I landed on it, so bought it fair and square. Waddingtons were taken over by the US firm of Hasbro in the 1990s. Most of the firm’s archives reside at the West Yorkshire Archives Service and Abbey House.

Waddingtons became the UK publisher of the US Parker Brothers' Monopoly, while Parker licensed Waddingtons' Cluedo. [2] In 1941, the British Directorate of Military Intelligence section 9 (MI9) had the company create a special edition of Monopoly for World War II prisoners of war held by the Germans. [3] The game Monopoly owes its genesis to an American Quaker woman who believed in the common ownership of land. By 1935 when the Parker Brothers in Philadelphia acquired the rights to the game, it had become the embodiment of capitalist speculation. The original British game is of course based on the city of London, with famous landmarks including Mayfair, Park Lane, Picadilly and Regent Street.Brian McMahon (29 November 2007). "How board game helped free POWs". Mental Floss magazine . Retrieved 7 December 2007. The slightly bizarre choice of London streets and the small ‘mistakes’ above were made when Victor Watson, an employee of Waddingtons, did a ‘taxi dash’ around London to find iconic streets for the British version of the board game. With crown jewels like Bolton Abbey and Malham Cove we expect to be wonderfully spoiled for choices producing this edition.” Designers have said famous landmarks featured on the board could include the Ribblehead Viaduct, Bolton Abbey, Jervaulx Abbey and Skipton Castle. Image: Unsplash Beginning in 1994, Christmas-themed jigsaw puzzles were released annually until 2007. The first twelve in the series depicted a scene from a Victorian-era Christmas. The final puzzle depicted a scene from the fairy tale Cinderella. The small number of puzzles, combined with them being limited editions, has made these puzzles highly collectable. [9] Further jigsaws have been produced since 2010 by a new company, using the same brand name. [9] Games [ edit ]