If you've ever looked at a London Monopoly board and thought "I wonder if there's a pub on every one of those squares" — you're not the first, and yes, roughly speaking, there is. The Monopoly pub crawl is a cult classic among stag dos, hen parties and big birthday groups: visit a pub named after (or standing on) every street on the board, in order, with a drink at each. It's ambitious, it's a lot of walking, and it is not, in our honest opinion, something you should attempt without a plan. Here's how the rules actually work, the route square by square, and — because we run a rather more sensible guided crawl for a living — some thoughts on how to do it without wrecking your day.
What is the Monopoly pub crawl?
The idea is simple: take the classic London edition of Monopoly and, instead of buying the streets, you drink your way around them. Groups usually pick a pub that shares its name with, or sits on, each of the board's 22 coloured street squares — from Old Kent Road right up to Mayfair — and have one drink (or do a small challenge) at each stop before moving on. Some crawls add house rules lifted straight from the game: land on a "Go To Jail" pub and do a forfeit, buy a round when you pass "Go", that sort of thing. There's no single official version — it's a pub culture tradition that different groups run slightly differently, so treat any list you find online (including this one) as a starting point to check and adapt, not gospel.
The rules, roughly
- Order matters: you crawl the board in board order, typically starting at Old Kent Road (or wherever "Go" sits in your version) and working round.
- One drink per stop: most groups agree on a single drink per pub to keep things moving — this is not a session at each stop, it's a sip-and-go format.
- Photo evidence: a lot of groups take a photo at each venue as proof of "owning" the square, Monopoly-style.
- Forfeits: some groups build in Chance/Community Chest-style dares or forfeits for whoever's doing the crawl for a stag or hen do.
- Stations and utilities are usually skipped: the four stations and two utilities on the board rarely map onto a single obvious pub, so most crawls stick to the 22 street squares only.
The route, square by square
The exact pub names change over time as venues close, get renamed or change hands, so we're deliberately not publishing a fixed address list here — always check a venue is still open before you build it into your day. But the board order, which is the backbone of the whole crawl, runs like this:
- Brown: Old Kent Road, Whitechapel Road
- Light blue: The Angel Islington, Euston Road, Pentonville Road
- Pink: Pall Mall, Whitehall, Northumberland Avenue
- Orange: Bow Street, Marlborough Street, Vine Street
- Red: The Strand, Fleet Street, Trafalgar Square
- Yellow: Leicester Square, Coventry Street, Piccadilly
- Green: Regent Street, Oxford Street, Bond Street
- Dark blue: Park Lane, Mayfair
That's the 22-square spine of the crawl. In practice, most of these squares sit within walking distance of a Tube stop, but the full route zigzags across a big chunk of central London — from Old Kent Road in the south-east, up through Islington, across to Westminster and Trafalgar Square, then west along Oxford Street and Regent Street to Mayfair. It is, geographically, a proper trek.
How long does the full crawl actually take?
This is the bit people underestimate. Even at a brisk one-drink-and-go pace, 22 stops across several miles of central London means a lot of walking and a lot of queuing at the bar, especially on a weekend evening. Realistically, a full board crawl is an all-day-into-the-night undertaking, and by the later squares most groups are moving slower, drinking faster to "catch up", or both — which is exactly the pattern that turns a fun day out into a bad one. If you're set on the full 22, budget the best part of 10–12 hours and build in proper food stops; if that sounds like a lot, it's because it is.
Why we'd suggest trimming the board
Most groups who tell you they "did the Monopoly crawl" actually did a version of it — a section of the board, a shortened list, or a couple of squares skipped when everyone's flagging. That's the sensible move. A few ways to do it without losing the fun:
- Crawl one colour set at a time over a few outings rather than the whole board in one go.
- Cap it at 8–10 stops and pick the most walkable, central cluster (the yellow, green and dark blue squares sit closest together).
- Swap some "drinks" for soft drinks or a snack stop partway through — nobody's checking your Monopoly licence.
- Book food along the way, not just at the start — several small meals beat one big one for pacing a long crawl.
If you'd rather skip the DIY logistics altogether and want a structured self-led route instead, our guide to London's best pub crawl routes covers several shorter, more walkable options, including the Bermondsey Beer Mile itself.
Safety and pacing tips
- Eat properly before you start, and keep eating through the day — this is the single biggest factor in how the day ends.
- Pace your drinks: a half or a soft drink at a couple of stops keeps everyone upright for the finish.
- Plan your transport home before you start, especially if the crawl runs into the evening.
- Keep the group together — a 22-stop route across central London is easy to get separated on, especially at night.
- Have a fallback plan for any pub that's closed, fully booked or unrecognisable from an old list — it happens more often than you'd think.
A saner alternative: a guided crawl
We're obviously biased, but after running guided beer crawls in London since 2014, we'd argue the Monopoly board's real appeal — visiting lots of different venues in one sociable day — doesn't actually require 22 stops or a 10-hour marathon. Our Bermondsey Beer Tasting Tour runs 2–3.5 hours, £49 per person with beer included at four independent taprooms, and a local guide who keeps the pace sensible and the group together. It meets at Southwark Brewing Co, 46 Druid St, and covers a much more walkable route than the full Monopoly board while still feeling like a proper crawl through a whole neighbourhood of good drinking spots.
Good for stags, hens and big groups
If the Monopoly crawl is on your shortlist because you're planning a stag do, hen party or milestone birthday, it's worth weighing it against a guided option built for exactly that. We run private tours for groups of 6 to 60+, with the route and pace tailored to your crowd rather than a fixed board layout — see our stag & hen do ideas for more on why a guided crawl tends to go down better than an unguided marathon.
Make a day of it either way
Whichever route you choose, a good pub or beer crawl benefits from a few extras built around it. A street-food stop at Borough Market or Maltby Street works well as a natural halfway point if your route passes South East London, and our free self-guided heritage walk is a good, low-key way to start the day before the drinking begins. If beer rather than a full pub crawl is more your thing, our roundup of London's best breweries, area by area is worth a read too.
Doing it as a gift
If you're planning this for someone else's stag, hen or birthday, our gift vouchers for the guided Beer Mile tour are delivered instantly by email and never expire, so the group can pick their own date rather than being locked into a specific weekend.
More London nightlife experiences
The links below are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. We only suggest experiences we'd recommend anyway.
- London Bar & Club Crawl (5 central venues) — a hosted evening crawl with queue-skip entry, a decent shortcut if the DIY Monopoly route sounds like too much planning.
- Camden Pub Crawl (5 venues, drink deals) — a sociable, guided alternative if you fancy North London over the full board trek.