Community Chest #1

When I initially thought about doing this game  I thought it might be an extra challenge to not do just the property squares but try to include the other squares, like the Electricity Company or The Jail also. What I hadn’t really thought about were the Chance and Community Chest squares.

Now to cover the Chance squares there’s plenty of scope for some sort of random pub destination decision making but on the other hand, the Community Chest? What does that even mean? This might prove more of a problem.

Well, and to spoil any anti-climax, in fact it didn’t turn out that way at all. A quick Google of the words “Community Chest London” produced a link to the Cripplegate Foundation which runs the “Islington Community Chest”. These good people have their offices at 76 Central Street, which is just north of Barbican tube station, a place I travel through every working day.

So thinking that the journey to this location would be a damn sight easier than the last one I thought a quick stop off on a Friday evening would be a good idea. At first things went well, a quick stroll up Old Street and the offices of the Cripplegate Foundation were found, right next door to one of the more energetic games of 5-a-side I’ve seen for quite a while.

The first card from the top of Community Chest deck.

It was then time to move onto the nearest Cask Marque pub which turned out to be another Weatherspoon’s, this time the rather oddly named Masque Haunt. A vast, soulless monstrosity of a corner pub this place was just where I didn’t want to be on a busy Friday evening. The service was fast and friendly and the range of 10 ales was by far superior than The Rockingham Arms (see Old Kent Road) but I came to the sudden crashing realisation that when on your own a full, crowded pub isn’t a good place to be. Some people can oh so easily strike up conversations with strangers, and whilst not a shy person, faced with pockets of well acquainted people I shrunk further into my shell. The pint of Adnams Gunhill was fine but I couldn’t get out of the place fast enough, so fast in fact I didn’t find the Cask Marque certificate even after a close scan of all the walls.

Someone talk to me!

Not wanting to completely waste the evening I made my way back to the tube via Bunhill Row knowing that another Cask Marque pub lay in this direction. Fuller’s Artillery Arms is another corner pub but couldn’t be more different than the Masque Haunt. Traditional, cosy and with a fantastic square bar plonked in the middle of the room, the teaming Friday night crowd were falling out of the door to drink along side the cemetery opposite. The Cask Marque certificate was propped on a table by the window and although I can claim to have stood manfully waiting to be served, I gave up and slunk away with a scan but not a drink drunk.

Must come back to this place - Must also take better photos!

Number of Cask Marque Pubs visited = 35

Target for next visit: Speak to someone! = 0

Apologies to Gash Man = No opportunity for knob gags

Next Stop = Whitechapel Road