Waddington’s began their ' Beautiful Britain' series depicting scenes of seaside, rural and historic resorts in 1924. Watson managed to make the company a success. The following year, they moved to a bigger premises on Elland Road close to the football ground. In 1994, Waddingtons was bought by Hasbro. By this point they had produced many games which have since become household names that are both original and under licence. In 1929 John Waddington Ltd (Leeds & London) commenced the production of circular cards and these were very popular. They were introduced to the USA where sales were beyond expectations. The business did however produce foreign banknotes. This was under an agreement with De La Rue in London whose factory was bombed.

At the time circumstances were favourable in that in 1922 Charles Goodall & Co. Ltd were absorbed by Thomas De la Rue thus leaving only one major competitor. In 1913, Waddington again encountered money problems. He ended up resigning from the company however his name lived on. Above: The rule book carries a date of October 1933, and a section on "How to Arrange a Lexicon Drive".

Above: RIO RITA radio talkie-musical double set of ‘Cir-Q-Lar’ playing cards manufactured by John Waddington Ltd in a padded box, c.1929. David Thornton, Leeds: A Historical Dictionary of People, Places and Events (Huddersfield: Northern Heritage Publications, 2013), s.v. WADDINGTONS. On Good Friday in 1915, this factory burnt down. Watson was undeterred and the following day bought another printing firm which was going out of business. One of these games is ‘Cluedo’. It was based on a game developed during the war years by a man called Anthony E. Pratt. The quotation on each card consists of words spoken by the character depicted, and the phrases have been chosen with a view to the temperament and the leading episode of the character;

Waddingtons became the UK publisher of the US Parker Brothers' Monopoly, while Parker licensed Waddingtons' Cluedo. [2] In 1941, the British Directorate of Military Intelligence section 9 (MI9) had the company create a special edition of Monopoly for World War II prisoners of war held by the Germans. [3] These changes haven’t fully disappeared however. Some of these have since appeared in spin-off versions of the game. Some minor changes were made from the original. Instead of having only six suspects, this was increased to ten. This prohibition extended to playing cards. In the early days of the war playing cards were regarded as superfluous and the material to make them became more and more difficult to obtain. Finally, however, it was the personal intervention of Mr Winston Churchill which brought the position to a head when he was visiting the troops in Egypt. As a result, they were granted a licence to produce the game. Dollars were replaced with Great British Pounds and the names were changed to London Streets and landmarks.

Games

In 1934 the rights for 'Monopoly' were won, which has produced about half a million pounds’ sales each year since then and set the firm on the road to greatness in the toy trade in the UK. Their primary aim was to produce trading stamps. As a result, this led to Waddingtons printing their famous Green Shield stamps. Death of Mr Monopoly, Yorkshire businessman Victor Watson, at 86, The Yorkshire Post, 26 February 2015 These include Risk, Subbuteo, Cluedo, Sorry, and Lord Zen’s Card Game. The latter which was rebranded as Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.

During the 1920’s, business was booming. The demand for standard playing cards was incredibly high and showed no signs of slowing down. Currently, Waddingtons are continuing to produce new games. This is still done under the famous Hasbro name.

Multibuys

Lexicon | V&A Explore The Collections". Victoria and Albert Museum. 4 March 2000 . Retrieved 24 May 2022. Waddingtons was a British manufacturer of card and board games. The company was founded by John Waddington of Leeds, England and the manager, actor and playwright Wilson Barrett, under the name Waddingtons Limited. The name was changed in 1905 to John Waddington Limited, then Waddington's House of Games, then Waddington Games, and finally just Waddingtons.