A brand-new official Monopoly Oxford Edition is launching today (12th March 2024), 23 years after the first version of the family favourite board game.
With bespoke property spaces on the game board and cards are based on real life places in the city of Dreaming Spires, including iconic locations such as the Saxon Tower, Blackwells bookshop, the Ashmolean museum, the Cowley Road carnival, and the boat race, residents of Oxfordshire will delight in playing the game. Well until they draw the card that sends players ‘Back 3 Spaces’ for getting stuck behind a group of cyclists!
“MONOPOLY: Oxford Edition reflects the Oxford of today with a new board for a new generation,”
Yasmin East, Custom Games Executive at Winning Moves UK.
The Monopoly Oxford Edition version of the property trading game will hit the shops at 11am on Tuesday (12th March 2024), in time for Easter. The game will also be extensively available online, including at Booghe.co.uk and Amazon.co.uk and locally on sale at Blackwell’s, Hoyle’s and Waterstones.
if you are near Broad Street today, pop in to Blackwell’s for the giant life-sized version of the board, gigantic money, top hats, and more.
Last year, it was announced that Oxford was getting its very own official version of the world’s most popular family board games. At the time, the public was invited to send in suggestions for landmarks and organisations of the town to be featured in the game.
Ms East adds: “The response from the public has been overwhelming. A very big thank you to everyone who sent in nominations and congratulations to everyone featured in the game.”
What is on the Monopoly Oxford Edition?
Other notable changes from the standard MONOPOLY game include: replacing ‘Mayfair,’ the game’s top-ranking space, with the Ashmolean Museum, and at the other end of the board, ‘Old Kent Road,’ the game’s most affordable square, is The Saxon Tower – on account of it being very “old.”
In between are the great and good of Oxford, including the Bodleian Library, the Carfax Tower, the Covered Market, Blackwell’s, Oxford Town Hall and Cowley Road Carnival.
In all, 30+ Oxford landmarks and organisations get to ‘Pass GO.’ So every proud Oxon should get their Oxford Monopoly city in a box or the Cotswold version.
Another notable change seen on the board are in regards to the four train stations from the classic MONOPOLY original, which take a travel theme. That’s because Oxford does not have a multitude of main-line train stations to select from like in the original MONOPOLY board game. In this edition, all four stations are handed over to ‘Park and Ride’ terminals.
The game also features local charities such as Yellow Submarine, which was nominated to be featured following a public vote and appropriately lands on a … YELLOW square! Formed in 2009, Yellow Submarine is an Oxfordshire charity that believes people with learning disabilities and autism deserve to live life to the fullest. They offer a variety of activities to those with mild to moderate learning disabilities, including social clubs, activity days, residential holidays, and training programmes through its social enterprise cafes.
“It’s an honour to be included in this special edition MONOPOLY board game, particularly as it’s a result of support from the community,” says Kate Sankey, Co-Director at Yellow Submarine.
“MONOPOLY is a favourite among our membership, bringing joy to people of all ages, as well as evoking memories of years gone by. For our members and team, seeing our very own space is something we’re all going to treasure for a long time. We are so incredibly grateful to the community for voting for us.”
The launch of this game takes place at Blackwell’s Oxford in true MONOPOLY style, with the famous bookshop getting to land a double.
Blackwell’s, which dates back to 1879, has not only been selected to host the official launch but it appears on a space too – an orange square, which is the busiest part of a MONOPOLY board.
Charlie Bush, Blackwell’s Bookshop Manager, says:
“Our booksellers are delighted to play host to the launch of Oxford Monopoly at Blackwell’s Bookshop on Broad Street and are looking forward to Mr Monopoly’s visit to the vast Norrington Room in the shop.
“It’s enormously exciting to have our bookshop on the new Oxford board, recognising over 140 years of bookselling in our home city after Benjamin Blackwell took a chance and opened his shop in 1879.
“We are confident that players will roll the dice and snap up Blackwell’s as soon as they land on it, putting down their Monopoly money to own this world-famous bookshop.”
Winning Moves UK, an official MONOPOLY maker, is producing the brand-new MONOPOLY: Oxford Edition board game, under license from Hasbro, a leading toy and game company. Winning Moves UK makes MONOPOLY editions for places all over the world, including high-profile popular places, such as Palm Beach, Dubai and The Hamptons.
What’s on the Oxford Monopoly Board?
- Brown – The Saxon Tower and Carfax Tower
- Blue – The Cherwell Boathouse, the Boat Race, Salter’s Steamers
- Pink – May Day, Cowley Road Carnival, Oxford Pride
- Orange – G&D’s Ice Cream Cafes, Blackwell’s Bookshop, The Covered Market
- Red – The Oxford Soap Company, Hoyles, Jericho Coffee Traders
- Yellow – The Old Parsonage, Yellow Submarine, The Store
- Green – St Clare’s Oxford, D’Overbroeck’s Oxford, Bodleian Libraries
- Purple – Oxford Town Hall, Ashmolean Musuem
- Utilities – City Walking Tour, Tap Social Movement
- Park and Ride Stations – Pear Tree, Redbridge, Seacourt, Thornhill
What is Monopoly?
The economics themed board game Monopoly first hit shelves in 1935 with the Racecar, Thimble, Boot, Top Hat, and Battleship among the original set of MONOPOLY tokens while the Scottie Dog and Wheelbarrow were added in the early 1950s. The original classic version is the London based board we all know and love, even selling internationally.
Although the brand has evolved over the past 89 years, the gameplay and iconography of the classic MONOPOLY game has remained unchanged, where players buy, trade, and develop properties to try to bankrupt their opponents. It a timeless classic sure to be enjoyed by future generations, fun for adults and kids over the age of 8. And no doubt create a few family arguments too.
Today, MONOPOLY is the world’s favourite family game brand and is enjoyed by more than one billion players in 114 countries across the globe.
The game strategy involves buying properties to complete the set, and to build houses and hotels to monopolise the board. Anyone who lands on your property has to pay rent, which increases the more development you have made. The more income you collect, the more you can build. The game ends when all other players become bankrupt.
The game is famous for it’s corner squares including free parking, go to jail, the jail and the GO starting square the utilities squares and the chance and community chest cards.
There is also a card game version called Monopoly Deal which is faster and great for holidays.
What special edition versions of monopoly are there
Some popular limited versions include collabs with Star Wars, Disney Edition, Game of Thrones, Fortnite, SpongeBob, and many regional versions based on different cities and countries around the world.
What does monopoly mean?
The word Monopoly refers to a situation in which a single company or group has complete control over a particular market or industry, allowing them to control prices and exclude competition.
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