Inn-opoly game could be right up your street
By chance launch coincides with official board announcement
A website has been launched to celebrate Maidstone’s best boozers with a Monopoly-inspired pub crawl.
It comes following the announcement last week that the County Town’s landmarks are to be immortalised in its very own edition of the iconic board game.
The Maidstone Pubopoly project - which is in no way affiliated with the official Winning Moves version - sees popular drinking establishments allocated to each square of the ‘board’ and is the brainchild of Steve Cheeseman and his pals. They dreamt up the idea after undertaking a similar pub crawl around London for his 30th. He said: “We were sat in a pub talking about how we could apply this to Maidstone. We started picking where we thought would be Old Kent Road
and Mayfair, and eventually we had a list.
“Thanks to lockdown I’ve managed to put it together.” In all 26 pubs made the cut though Mr Cheeseman stressed no one should attempt to have a drink in each in a single day. Landlord of The Style and Winch in Union Street, David Savory, was delighted his was included. He said: “With lockdown easing and hospitality reopening, hopefully this will encourage people to come out and support their local pubs.” Mr Cheeseman, 36, added: “A lot of these places are not big national chains, they are small family-run businesses.
“If I can do anything to drive a bit more trade for them that’s great, and it’s just coincidental that Winning Moves have decided to create a Maidstone Monopoly board at the same time, which is handy.”
Find the pub crawl game at tinyurl.com/pubopoly. Winning Moves’ plans for a County Town edition of the official game were announced last week and people have been asked to submit their ideas for landmarks to be included.
It is hoped the board, set for release in the autumn, will promote the best of the borough and lure more visitors.
Maidstone Museums director Victoria Barlow said: “We are very excited at this opportunity to put Maidstone on the map, or on the board at least.
‘Hopefully this will encourage people to come out and support their locals’
“The museum is just one of the brilliant landmarks we’d like as part of the Maidstone Monopoly game. We can imagine an iron on Week Street, a top hat at the Archbishop’s Palace or a giant dog outside the Town Hall.
“It would be great if visitors were drawn to the County Town because of something they found in the Community Chest.” n Send your suggestions for landmarks on the official Monopoly board by email to: maidstone@winningmoves. co.uk; via the official Maidstone Monopoly Facebook Page or by post to: Maidstone Monopoly,Winning Moves, 7 Praed Street, London W2 1NJ