Week 11 Impressions by Iman Sebunya

Whilst navigating my way around London, it dawned on me that certain street names and train stations sounded so very familiar. It was unlikely that I could credit school for this knowledge, so I just brushed it off and thought that I must simply be so good with names. Yes, that must be it. I have no idea how I actually came to that conclusion since I am known for referring to people as “what’s his/her face” while waiting for someone to fill in the blank. Anyway I convinced myself that I was in fact good with names until it hit me that it was actually hours spent playing Monopoly during childhood that was to blame.

I grew up playing endless games of monopoly with my siblings, each of us fighting to the bitter end, trying so hard to capitalize on the dark blue and green sections that consist of Mayfair, Park Lane, Bond Street, Oxford Street and Regent Street, none of us wanting to invest in the brown and light blue area at the beginning of the board that encompass Old Kent Road, Whitechapel Road, Angel Islington, and Euston Road.

Of course after discovering that my experience in Monopoly was responsible for my seeming in depth knowledge of London streets and stations, I consulted a London map to investigate which locations I had actually already visited. To my surprise I had visited 15 out of the 26 locations on the board. I sat there for a while, thinking of the spots I had seen and how I could finally situate these names with actual REAL physical locations, each with something different to offer. It was then that I decided to set myself the goal of visiting all the locations on the board before my time in London was up!

Over the next few weeks, I followed through with my mission and made my way to different sections of London. I felt like I was making my way around the monopoly board except my board was the tube map and I was myself and not an iron, shoe or dog! It became my own virtual game of monopoly except I had no money in the bank! I was also not looking to build houses and hotels or spend a few nights in jail for that matter.

What started off as a mere game or childish mission, actually turned out to be quite worthwhile. This quest really allowed me to see London in its entirety. It took me to so many completely different areas, each of which has such a different feel and distinct demographic. Surprisingly it showed me that those light blue and brown previously disdained areas of the Monopoly board were actually the most interesting, as they contain the whole world in a few city blocks. The journey allowed me to experience the whole social spectrum from wealth to poverty by strolling through London streets. Each area spoke to me through its own particular mix of class, race, culture, ethnicity and overall infrastructure. Through my own background and my parents' respective backgrounds each place had elements of home for me. I thoroughly enjoyed making memories in each place, whether it was eating curry, on Whitechapel Road with my old Indian friends from my Kenya days, meeting my father's relatives in Peckham, or living it up with non existing money shopping on Oxford Street or treating myself to the theater at Leicester Square or Covent Garden.