Caythorpe Scouts play real-life Monopoly on the streets of London

Bright and early on Saturday 4 March, 16 members of 1^st Caythorpe & Duke’s Covert Scout Troop, accompanied by their Leaders, were dressed for all weathers and excitedly waiting at Grantham Station for the 06:58 to Kings Cross. By 09:15 we’d achieved our first goal of the day; navigating our way to the London Eye at Jubilee Park, ready to start playing Monopoly Run Live.

It’s advertised as “an action-packed day visiting all corners of London”, and it certainly was. Over 8,000 Scouts and Guides from across the UK participated in the event, with 200 simultaneous Monopoly games taking place, pitting each team against seven others. In total, 1,386 teams were playing at the same time, four of them from Caythorpe! It was all cleverly managed by a bespoke app that guided us to specific locations on the Monopoly Board streets, set us various challenges and a quiz, and kept pinging us when we’d received rent or (more often than not) had to pay rent when we visited a location that had already been bought by a team within our game.

As each team planned its strategy (get Mayfair and Park Lane first, buy up all the local, cheaper, locations and hotels, or go for the utilities?), the starter hooter sounded, and hundreds of Scouts headed over The Hungerford Bridge to start their day.

For many of our younger Scouts, aged 10 and 11, it was their first time in London, and a very different experience from our regular activities such as camping and cooking on open fires. They quickly learnt new skills including navigating the London Underground, working out the London Bus routes, map reading and pacing themselves (both in terms of energy, and not eating all their snacks in the first half hour!). It was a fantastic way to see many of the sights in the Capital, over and above the Monopoly Board locations, including Buckingham Palace, The Houses of Parliament, and Covent Garden. 

In between ‘checking-in’ online to the Monopoly Board locations, our teams enjoyed a well-earned break, eating their packed lunches in Covent Garden, Soho Square, Leicester Square and Mayfair. Some of the check-ins were much easier to find than others – the teams were guided by a photo in the app (perhaps a statue, flag or plaque) and had to be within a few metres of the location for their check-in to work. There was a real buzz in the air across London as we kept bumping into other Scouts and Guides (easily identifiable by our neckers); it was lovely to be able to say hello and know that they’re also part of the worldwide family of Scouting.

After a long and incredibly active day (our phones reported 20km walked, and over 20,000 steps), the four Caythorpe teams congregated at Leicester Square before heading back to Kings Cross, via a pit-stop at McDonalds, and home to Grantham. Meanwhile the bespoke app was busily calculating the winners in each of the 200 simultaneous games. We were delighted that our teams came in first, second, third and fifth places in our game, at which point we learned we were playing against three Explorer units from Andover. After being awarded a prestigious ‘Monopoly Run 2023’ badge, the excited but weary Scouts were reunited with their parents and headed home for a big sleep.



Part of Grantham Scout District, 1^st Caythorpe and Duke’s Covert is a growing Scout Group with big ambitions. We have active Beaver, Cub and Scout sections, and meet at Caythorpe Village Hall on Thursday evenings during term time (Scouts meet fortnightly, with a monthly outdoor meet at Duke’s Covert Scout Campsite). We often run additional activities at Duke’s Covert as well various camping and outdoor events throughout the year.

If you’d like to join the fun and be a part of our friendly Group, learning loads of exciting skills for life along the way, please get in touch. We currently have spaces for girls and boys aged 6 to 10 in our Beaver and Cub sections.

To arrange a taster session please email 1stCaythorpe@granthamscouts.org.uk