Leeds Monopoly Board Game

Product Information

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.

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] Waddingtons was a family run company that started out as a theatrical printer in 1896 and then moved on to printing card games in 1921. Waddingtons got the rights to the game Monopoly in 1935 the same year that Parker Bros, in the United States of America got the rights to the game. In the original UK edition of Monopoly, the streets on the Monopoly board are named after London streets, after one of the Waddingtons employees when down to London for a short trip with this purpose in mind. On the original board there is one error; Marlborough Street should be Great Marlborough Street.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. 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”. We had connecting rooms, something we have never done before, but will 100% do again. It’s a small thing but the boys just loved having their own rooms. In fact Joe would only enter and exit the room via his own door, which might I add we were not allowed to use. The bathrooms were very modern, it was great to have 2 with a teen, and our view over Leeds was fantastic. In 1935 Monopoly was first patented in the USA and Waddington's published a British edition based on London streets.

Nominations for the design features closes on 31 August 2023, and it is expected the Yorkshire Dales version will be available to buy from May 2024. But more recently, new versions of the game have been released for places such as Leeds, Sheffield, Harrogate and more. Image: Winning Moves UK The original British game is of course based on the city of London, with famous landmarks including Mayfair, Park Lane, Picadilly and Regent Street.Obituary: Master of Monopoly who twice trounced Maxwell', Financial Times, 28 February/1 March 2015, p. 11 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. 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. The pencil drawing was found many years later by a man called Charles Darrow, at the home of one of his friends. From this, he then created a game that he named Monopoly, before selling the game on to the publisher Parker Brothers. This game became a success and was played in a large amount of households. When asked in an interview for Germantown Bulletin “how he had managed to invent Monopoly out of thin air – a seeming slight of hand that had brought joy into so many households” he replyed “It’s a freak… Entirely unexpected and illogical”.

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. The Boys who are mad sports fans were also greeted with personalised shirts for the Leeds Rhinos and a lovely letter to offer us a training day and lunch with the Rhinos in summer. Thank you so much you have no idea how special this made the boys feel. They are beside themselves with excitement, me? I am a little nervous but sure it will be a fun day and a special memory for us all. 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. Hidden inside these games were maps, compasses, real money and other objects useful for escaping. They were distributed to prisoners by fake charitable organisations. [4]Explore the fascinating history of the nation’s favourite board game with placement student Chelsea Knight. A LIMITED edition charity version of the world-famous Monopoly has proved a huge sell-out success for Leeds manufacturers Waddingtons. The 500 sets, using Leeds place names instead of London ones, were all snapped up within two hours of going on sale yesterday, leaving many people disappointed. Long queues had already formed outside the firm’s Rothwell premises when the doors opened at 8.45am.