In this episode, which is the 20th of Danny Hurst´s London Monopoly Board history series it is the turn of the 2nd yellow card  - Coventry Street. The unlikely home of some supernatural occurrences, gambling clubs and for hundreds of years, prostitution. Coventry Street has always been a buzzy place, with several iconic films premiering there.

Danny also shares Coventry Street´s connection to the Charleston, Marlene Dietrich, Charlie Chaplin, Rudolph Valentino, Ella Fitzgerald, and Ronnie Scott. He also explains how Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin dodged death during the Blitz and had his wounds cleaned out with champagne.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• The street was named after Sir Henry Coventry who was the Secretary of State.
• Legend has it that the police hired a vampire killer to deal with a strange incident on Coventry Street.
• The original ceiling of the first Lyons Corner House can still be seen in the café that is there today.
• Coventry Street was the original centre of London´s jazz scene.

BEST MOMENTS

‘It’s one of the least likely places one would expect to come across a vampire, although there are a good few zombies knocking around the place.’

‘It was famous during the restoration for its gambling clubs and prostitutes.’

EPISODE RESOURCES

The stories of supernatural Coventry Street - http://www.shadyoldlady.com/location.php?loc=1873

Highgate cemetery grave robbing story - https://www.kentishtowner.co.uk/2012/10/31/wednesday-picture-highgate-cemetery-and-the-tale-of-the-highgate-vampire/

Shop for all official versions of Monopoly here - https://www.amazon.co.uk/stores/page/785DC233-0A69-4DF8-98E9-4F50CC50A59E

HOST BIO

Historian, performer, and mentor Danny Hurst has been engaging audiences for many years, whether as a lecturer, stand-up comic, or intervention teacher with young offenders and excluded secondary students. Having worked with some of the most difficult people in the UK, he is a natural storyteller and entertainer, whilst purveying the most fascinating information that you didn't know you didn't know. A writer and host of pub quizzes across London, he has travelled extensively and speaks several languages. He has been a consultant for exhibitions at the Imperial War Museum and Natural History Museum in London as well as presenting accelerated learning seminars across the UK. With a wide range of knowledge ranging from motor mechanics to opera to breeding carnivorous plants, he believes learning is the most effective when it's fun. Uniquely delivered, this is history without the boring bits, told the way only Danny Hurst can.

CONTACT AND SOCIALS

https://instagram.com/dannyjhurst
facebook.com/danny.hurst.9638

https://twitter.com/dannyhurst 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/danny-hurst-19574720

Podcast Description

"History is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake." James Joyce.

That was me at school as well. Ironically, I ended up becoming a historian. The Unusual Histories podcast is all about the history you don't learn at school, nor indeed anywhere else. Discover things that you didn't know that you didn't know, fascinating historical luminaries and their vices and addictions, and the other numerous sides of every story.

We start with the Monopoly Series, in which we explore how the game came to be, the real-life connection between the cheapest and most expensive properties, the history of each location, how proportionate the values were then and are today, what the hell a "community chest" is and whether free parking really does exist anywhere in London.

If you love history; or indeed if you hate history, this is the podcast for you…