Last year its current owner, JD Wetherspoon, paid £100,000 to lease the building But it’s not just a question of money. Paul Williams, of Holden Matthews estate agents, is more unhappy with Islington’s proximity to the Old Kent Road and Whitechapel Road.”They are entirely different,” he said. “London’s perception of Islington has altered, it’s now considered an established residential part of London along the lines of Notting Hill or Chelsea.”Richard Donnell, a research analyst at the property consultants FDP Savills, said he would now put the cost of a three-bedroom terrace house in the area at £600,000. By rights this should move it from the cheapest of the blue properties to replace Marlborough Street – bang in the middle of orange.According to Mr Donnell’s figures, the final leg of the board would remain unchanged, with the exclusive green of Regent Street and the rich purple of Park Lane still among the priciest areas of the city. Mayfair, top of the list at 22, is still the most expensive property, up from the board’s £400 to £2.5m. And the drab brown of the Old Kent and Whitechapel Roads still know their place – at the bottom.But in between things have changed.

Northumberland Avenue has come crashing down from eighth to fifth, Vine Street from 11 to seven and Fleet Street from 13 to nine. But Bow Street has leapt from nine to 15, Pall Mall from six to 13.”Most of the squares on the original board cover predominantly commercial property locations and as such there is no established residential market on which to base our indicative prices,” said Mr Donnell. “The one exception is Islington, which in residential terms, should be further round the board as average values there are relatively high.”If the makers ever did consider remaking their famous board, Mr Donnell feels no 21st-century Monopoly game would be complete without the inclusion of prime locations such as Belgravia, Knightsbridge, Kensington, Notting Hill and parts of Chelsea. Even Wandsworth would merit a spot, he said.Waddington has remained unmoved by Islington’s pleas to redesign the game, which has sold more than 20 million sets in Britain alone. “The board was devised 65 years ago and reflect the property prices of the time,” said a spokesman.

“The board cannot be changed and will not be changed and anyway there isn’t enough space on the squares to add all the noughts you would need to write the current London prices.”. Problems uncovered with the fleet of Royal Naval Lynx helicopters will not affect operational duties of the armed forces, the Government insisted yesterday. Problems uncovered with the fleet of Royal Naval Lynx helicopters will not affect operational duties of the armed forces, the Government insisted yesterday.
Fatigue in the aircraft’s rotor mechanism has prompted checks of all 44 of the Navy’s frigate-based helicopters. The Ministry of Defence had said it would be two years before the fleet was back to full strength.Lewis Moonie, a Defence minister, said yesterday that only training helicopters would be grounded. Dr Moonie told BBC radio: “It is obviously a difficult situation, but I have to say it is not quite as bad as it sounds.”He said the problem was with a replaceable hub within the rotor mechanism.

“It is not a matter of grounding the helicopter, it is a matter of changing the hub,” he said.Dr Moonie said crews would have to “double up” for training exercises and stressed there would be no danger to personnel during the investigations and repairs.The army in Northern Ireland disclosed later that it had also withdrawn eight of its Lynx helicopters from service because of the safety scare.A spokesman at military headquarters in Lisburn, Co Antrim, emphasised that the reduction in the number of helicopters available for use in the province “does not affect our ability to support the RUC in the province”.The Liberal Democrat defence spokesman, Menzies Campbell, said: “It seemed that nothing else could go wrong for the MoD, but this news is extremely disturbing.”Our forces can only act effectively when they have the equipment they need. The period of two years until the problem is resolved seems extraordinarily long.”. Ken Livingstone, the hot favourite to win Thursday’s London mayoral election, has appealed for people not to attend anti-capitalist protests in the capital on Bank Holiday Monday. Ken Livingstone, the hot favourite to win Thursday’s London mayoral election, has appealed for people not to attend anti-capitalist protests in the capital on Bank Holiday Monday.
He said: “Whilst I’m sure a lot of the people going on Monday are planning to have a peaceful demonstration, it has become quite clear to police intelligence that there is a small core who will try and cause violence and people will get hurt in that.”He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that because May Day was a traditional Labour celebration people should go to an event being held by the TUC at the Millennium Dome instead.He said he believed in direct action, but added: “Violence is completely unacceptable in any civil society.”We have struggled for hundreds of years to get a society based on the rule of law and the ballot box and we have that in place. There is no excuse for violence.”But shadow minister for London Bernard Jenkin said Mr Livingstone could not be trusted: “At any given time, Livingstone will say what he thinks people want to hear.”As the second day of the four-day protest got under way, Home Secretary Jack Straw promised a major operation to prevent violence: “It has to be policed effectively and it will be policed effectively.”Protesters are planning an eight-hour festival in Holloway Road, north London, in the Bank Holiday protest against global capitalism.Last night hundreds of cyclists rode from Waterloo Bridge to central London in a peaceful protest at congestion and pollution on the roads.Police fear there could be a repeat of last year’s riots in the City of London on Monday when thousands of people are expected to descend on Parliament Square.The demonstrators are expected to bring seeds and gardening equipment during the Guerilla Gardening action to symbolise the return of urban areas to nature.Senior police officers fear the event could spiral into violence if hardcore activists use equipment such as spades and trowels as weapons..

A hand grenade exploded in a packed Hamburg discotheque early Saturday morning, injuring eight people, two of them seriously. A hand grenade exploded in a packed Hamburg discotheque early Saturday morning, injuring eight people, two of them seriously.
The motive for the attack was not immediately clear, and there were no leads on suspects, police said.The fragmentation hand grenade that police said was Yugoslav built was hidden in a room separated from the dance floor at the “J’s” club when it detonated shortly after 3 a.m. (0100 GMT).Police said the explosive device was hidden between some seats, but were not sure how it was set off.At the time of the explosion, 1,500 people were in the disco in Hamburg, Germany’s second-largest city.Six men and two women were injured in the attack, aged between 18 and 32, suffering from injuries to their arms, legs and bodies with one person hit in the eyes. A 23-year-old woman and a 21-year-old man were in life-threatening condition.. The Governor of the Bank of France was placed under judicial examination yesterday, placing in jeopardy not only Jean-Claude Trichet’s position as France’s most senior banker but also his status as next in line to head the European Central Bank. The Governor of the Bank of France was placed under judicial examination yesterday, placing in jeopardy not only Jean-Claude Trichet’s position as France’s most senior banker but also his status as next in line to head the European Central Bank.
Mr Trichet was informed by letter that he faces a formal investigation as part of a judicial inquiry into the crisis at the Credit Lyonnais bank, which lost about $18bn before undergoing a costly rescue.The development is a potentially serious blow to the French establishment and to the European Central Bank as it struggles to build confidence in the beleaguered euro. Under a controversial “gentleman’s agreement” Mr Trichet is due to take over as president of the ECB in 2002.In a statement, Mr Trichet declared himself “profoundly surprised” by the turn of events, promised to put himself at the “total disposition” of the investigating magistrate and said he expected to be cleared.But the allegations against Mr Trichet, who was head of the French Treasury from 1987 to 1993 and represented the government on the bank’s board, appear to be serious.