Our very own Ipswich Monopoly! Have your say to name a Square!

Looks like we have secured an official edition of the world’s most popular board game, MONOPOLY.

This year marks MONOPOLY’s 90th anniversary and to celebrate, cities and towns have been competing for their own custom editions.   On  Thursday 27th February, it will be announced on The Cornhill at 10am in the presence of the Mayor that Ipswich has won a ten-way UK competition to ‘Pass GO’.

It should be quite a spectacle with gigantic money, enlarged property cards, top hats and more.   At the announcement, it will be revealed that Ipswich secured its place in a UK-wide “beauty contest,” outperforming nine other locations based on two key factors: “Sense of Family” and “Civic Pride.”

“Ipswich ticks every box,” said Ben Ladd Gibbon, from Winning Moves UK, who will be in Ipswich on Thursday to unveil the new MONOPOLY: Ipswich Edition with Mr. Monopoly and the Mayor of Ipswich.

You can take part and make suggestions for a square in the game!

“We are sure we are going to be wonderfully spoilt with choices when putting this MONOPOLY game together,” added Mr Ladd Gibbon, Custom Games Partnerships Manager at Winning Moves UK. “The board will encompass Ipswich’s rich past – from medieval and Tudor times to today and its stunning Waterfront which is a tourist magnet for the town.”

Winning Moves UK is producing the brand-new MONOPOLY: Ipswich Edition board game, under license from Hasbro. Winning Moves UK makes MONOPOLY editions for places all over the world, including high-profile places, such as Palm Beach, Dubai and The Hamptons. It made an original MONOPOLY: Ipswich Edition, back in 2006. “This new version is a new game for a new generation,” adds Mr Ladd Gibbon.

The board will be themed around heritage, tourism, entertainment, leisure, business, and travel – all reflecting Ipswich.

You are invited to suggest Ipswich landmarks to be featured on the famous MONOPOLY spaces, as well as for three charities to be showcased on Community Chest squares. Suggestions can be made by email to: [email protected]. Nominations will be accepted for consideration from 10am on 27th February 2025 until 23.59pm on 12th March 2025. The new version of the game will hit the shops in time for this Christmas 2025.

And here’s a  ‘90-second quiz’ to celebrate 90 years of Monopoly:

1. What do you collect when you land on Free Parking?
2. Which is the only square landed on that players CANNOT occupy?
3. Which colour set are the most landed on?
4. Which square are you NOT allowed to ‘Pass’ when you are sent to the MONOPOLY Jail?
5. Can you collect any rents while languishing in jail?

Answers:

1. Nothing. It’s not an official rule that money is paid into the centre of the board when fined, although that’s a popular UK ‘House Rule’. All fines must be paid to the MONOPOLY bank.
2. Go to Jail.
3. Oranges.
4. The ‘GO’ square.
5. Yes. It may seem with this rule as if misdeeds pay. But the logic behind it is that players are already heavily penalised during play and to deny rents while in jail would be a double penalty.

Time to get thinking and enter your ideas for Monopoly spaces.  Please Ipswich.love for Community Chest!

Who wrote this about Ipswich?

Sam Sherman

Sam is a Co-Founder of Ipswich.love. Passionate about Ipswich, Sam looks to see how we might jointly reverse some of the recent negativity and bring some deserved positivity back to our beloved Town.