"GO BACK TO OLD KENT ROAD". So we did. On Saturday the 28th of April 2001, five of us arrived at Elephant And Castle in South-East London ready to start the fourth annual (and possibly the last if we actually completed the damn thing) Monopoly Pub Crawl. Two other crawlers joined us there before we took the number 63 bus down that most brown of Monopoly Streets towards the first pub, The Green Man. As we were about 10 minutes late getting there, the 12 other crawlers who actually arrived on time were just leaving, but after troubling the bored looking barman for our first drinks of the day, we caught up with them at the bus stop across the road. The traditional cheapo plastic black hats appeared at this point, which amused the normal punters as we all squeezed onto an already busy number 78 bus towards the City Of London.

All 20(ish) of us made it over Tower Bridge on the bus and hopped off at The Minories before heading round the corner into Fenchurch Street Station. Despite us only having covered one pub, I managed to mistake some passing poor ginger bloke for Mike, and attempted to strike up conversation with him. After hastily realising my mistake, I joined the race down Platform 2 in the station in order to be first served at the excessively small bar in The Raven, and in fact succeeded due to everyone else getting stuck in the ticket barriers. A few of us purchased fun cameras from the station shop here in order to record the days revellery, and it was already apparant that poor Bev was feeling a little worse for wear after consuming two drinks!

We all headed back up the platform in Fenchurch Street and down the stairs to Tower Hill Tube Station, before taking the first train up to Whitechapel. Just outside the station, we found The Grave Maurice, a one-time haunt of the Kray Brothers but now better known as the Whitechapel Road stop on Monopoly Pub Crawls. It took ages getting served here since there was only one barmaid on, but from what I remember, the drinks were relatively cheap. Within 10 minutes though, we all dashed back onto the Tube and into the next District Line train back to Blackfriars, thoroughly enjoying the on-train entertainment courtesty of an accordian-playing illegal immigrant. Our group of starters was still intact at this point, although we nearly lost a few at Whitechapel as the train doors began closing a little sooner than we expected...

After leaving the train at Blackfriars, we headed up onto Fleet Street, and started looking for a pub that might actually be open. A passing Police car gave us a toot as we all squeezed into what could have been the smallest pub in the world, The Tipperary. Thankfully, this place must have been expecting hoards of Saturday afternoon pub crawlers as they had bar staff galore, and we all got served our surprisingly strong vodkas within only a few minutes. The manager of the pub informed us he'd only taken the place over a few weeks previously and was trying out Saturday opening - Thank Goodness he did otherwise we'd have been in trouble as this was the only pub open on Fleet Street.

More bus fun followed on our epic journey on a number 11 to Liverpool Street Station, with a few of our group waving (or making other gestures) at the foreign tourists we were passing. Within seconds of alighting at the terminus, it was another mad sprint along the upper concourse at the station to our first Wetherspoon pub of the day, and the realisation of the fact we weren't the only ones pub crawling the Monopoly board that day. Jamie decided we weren't going to be held up by them, so it was a case of down-them-and-out, and it was back over for another bus, this time up to Islington, and The Angel. I stop off at the Station Shop for food and nearly miss the bus... Mike and Gary stop off at McDonalds looking for me and miss the bus.

There was no animal rights demonstration this year at The Angel, so we safely crossed the road without fear of arrest, and charged into one of the busier pubs of the day, another JD Wetherspoon establishment. Phil got the drinks in, and somehow ended up with a few too many until we realised Mike and Gary were probably still at Liverpool Street. After a few minutes though, they turned up, apparantly on the bus just behind us, and downed the by now warm vodka and orange before joining the rest of us on the short walk up the hill to Pentonville Road. The wind was starting to pick up by this point and a few hats flew into the road, but nearly getting run over is all part of the fun!

A Monopoly favourite... The Pint Pot was already filled with rival crawlers when we got here, and the tall lass with the Union Jack hat certainly caught my eye! This place appeared even less like a pub than in previous years what with the menus on the tables proffering a wide variety of Thai cuisine, although I daresay it would have been a welcome break for some of our group! A few of us sat outside on the picnic tables and enjoyed the London smog, but as the rain began to fall, we drank up and re-grouped, before legging it across the road in front of an approaching bus, which we all managed to catch. Another group of crawlers made this bus as well... the aim was to make it to Kings Cross quickly and get served before them!

We all managed to miss the stop for Kings Cross, so had to jump off just as the bus was pulling away. Bev and I were first across the road and into the side entrance of the station, with me slowing us down by stopping at the cash machine. Five minutes later, anyone passing Coopers pub would have been rubbing their eyes in disbelief at no less than FOUR distinct groups of Monopoly pub crawlers, all competing to get served quickly by the increasingly frustrated bar staff! The variety of silly hats on display here had to be seen to be believed, but we didn't linger long as once again, we wanted a head start on our rivals...

For the first time in the day, some people began to question whether we'd complete the crawl, though I was being optimistic as ever. Jamie reckoned we were ahead of schedule but there was to be no slow-down in drinking speeds just yet, until the winning post was within sight. The Flyer is another well-known Monopoly pub, and was the point we welcomed a new addition to our group, Mr P. To get him in the spirit, Bev suggested he should drink pints to catch the rest of us up... a suggestion that was taken just a little too literally but caused everyone great amusement later on! Arguments followed as we were leaving this pub as to the quickest way to Oxford Street... in the end, the bus won, and somehow once again, we all managed to make it onto the same one after yet another mad hat-flying dash.