Tuesday 20 September 2016

Whitechapel Road (Londonopoly #8)

This is number eight in our occasional series of Londonopoly, an exploration of public clocks in the real-life locations on the standard UK Monopoly board. Last time we looked at Old Kent Road, square number one, so lets keep moving round the board - hence we arrive at Whitechapel Road.

This is the Albion Brewery of Mann, Crossman and Paulin brewers, although subsequently amalgamated into a series of larger companies.


The brewery was built in the 1860's, and closed in 1979.




The brewery is at the non-city end of the road. Moving towards the city, we come to where some of those who overindulged in the brewery's products might have ended up - the Royal London Hospital.


The hospital was founded as the London Infirmary in 1740, becoming the London Hospital in 1748. It moved to its current site in 1757, and was granted the Royal prefix in 1990 to mark its 250th anniversary.




A major new extension to the hospital (the big blue glass building) has been opened in recent years.

The statue is on a drinking fountain on the other side of the road.








Th original building is now behind hoardings, as the medical functions have been moved to the new building. The site has been purchased by Tower Hamlets council for possible conversion into a civic centre.

Our third clock is a much more recent addition at the western end of the road.



The clock is mounted on a lighting column on the pavement side of Altab Ali Park.



This was originally St Mary's Park, named after the 14th century church of St Mary Matfelon which was subsequently destroyed during the Blitz in 1940. The park was re-named in 1998 in memory of Altab Ali, a Bangladeshi worker who was murdered locally in 1978.




If we are going around the board, our next stop in this series should be Kings Cross station, but no promises.

2 comments:

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  2. Thank you for comments. I will try to keep posting - I have still got a backlog of posts to do.

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