THE Gazette has been unveiled as the spiritual home of British journalism and will take on the Fleet Street square in the Colchester edition of Monopoly.

The long-awaited boardgame will be launched on Friday during a glitzy event at the Mercury Theatre.

This newspaper is one of more than 30 Colchester institutions and landmarks which will take over the famous London squares.

Game bosses have remained tight-lipped on the final square positions but it is understood landmarks such as Jumbo, Colchester Castle, Weston Homes Community Stadium, Fenwick’s and the Mercury Theatre are all set to feature.

However their squares are not known.

Emma Lodwick, head at Winning Moves, which is creating the game, said: “All will be revealed on Friday.

“We are keeping just about everything under our Monopoly top hats until the launch of the board on Friday.

“We have announced two charity squares and what positions they are on and today we are delighted to announce that the Gazette has landed on Fleet Street, the spiritual and original home of the UK journalism industry.

“So in the best traditions of British journalism, The Gazette has a scoop on their own story as we hadn’t planned on any more announcements until Friday!”

Dominic Bowers, Gazette head of content, said: “It’s an honour and a privilege to be named as the Fleet Street of Colchester’s Monopoly board.

“It is incredibly exciting for such a famous boardgame to creating an entire edition for the town and we are very happy to be a part of it.”

He added: “We’re looking forward to Friday, when the whole board is revealed at the Mercury Theatre.”