Get with the swingers: London's newest nightspots offer sport and socialising. Whether you want to play golf in a place that also has a gin palace or enjoy ping pong with your pint, LondonTown has the best places to play social sports.
Brought to you by the brains behind Bounce and the tech whizzes behind global phenomenon Topgolf, Puttshack takes mini-golf to a whole new level - and you'll never get away with cheating again. Seven years in the making, the 15 million pound project is sprawled across 20,000 square feet - part of the 600 million pound Westfield London expansion which adds 90 new outlets to the west London shopping mall. At Puttshack you not only get four interactive nine hole courses, you'll also find a 750-capacity rum bar and restaurant where the menu, curated by Richard Edney, includes vegetarian and vegan dishes with florentine pizza and bao steamed buns among the choices. Adam Breeden, co-founder of Bounce, Flight Club, All Star Lanes and now Puttshack, is clearly king of Social Sports in London.
Flight Club has brought darts out of dark, dingy pubs and into the 21st century and they've hit the bullseye with their stylish clubs. Following the success of their Shoreditch site, the masterminds behind the social darts revolution score a triple 20 with their second Flight Club in Bloomsbury. The bar is simply stunning with a large, ornate carousel themed bar centre stage. Food is of the gourmet sort - show-stopping pizza paddles and avocado on toast - and drinks including signature slushy cocktails, party shots and craft beers are served to you as you play. S et over two floors with nine oches (that's the throw line, for all you darts novices) and a capacity of 250, Flight Club Bloomsbury is perfect for a glamorous night out, birthday celebration and big office shindig - and they've got a private room to hire for those special occasions.
It started out in 2015 as a pop up in Shoreditch but a year later Swingers got a permanent bigger and better home at Brown's Buildings, between St Mary Axe and Bury Street, in a former WWII bunker in the City. Ideal for those who fancy a bit of a competitive sports while they socialise, Swingers combines two crazy golf courses with a two-storey clubhouse. There's excellent street food from some of London's best vendors, including Patty and Bun and Pizza Pilgrims, and not one but five bars, each with its own speciality cocktails. Want to keep scores and order food while you're on the course? There's an app for that.
After drawing the crowds to its Brick Lane pop-up, Junkyard Golf Club has now found a new permanent home, moving its eccentric crazy golf courses to Broadgate Quarter in Hackney. Junkyard pride themselves on giving you the craziest golf you've ever played with four 9-hole courses featuring all manner of odd obstacles created using hoarded junk, second-hand purchases and charity finds. Expect everything from volcanoes to jacuzzis, all interspersed with neon colours and graffiti artwork. A new addition created for this site is the Acid House theme, full of electric, UV mayhem, while three bars serve colourful, creative and sweetly nostalgic cocktails such as the Ribena Turner, Porn in the USA and Post Melon.
With four of these popular 1950s retro-America style bowling alleys around town, there's no disputing Londoners like to bowl on a night out. Hip and happening All Star Lanes is a great place for a gang of you to spend a memorable night out trying to out-do each other and the excellent bar and diner have made them a destination in their own right. The atmosphere is really buzzing on Friday and Saturday nights with resident guest DJs mixing the tunes and upping the tempo from 9pm through till midnight. As you'd expect at such an all-American entertainment, the diner serves burgers, steak, ribs and beers. Booking a lane is recommended but not essential - there are always at least two waiting list lanes which are on a first come first serve basis - and when booking you can have up to six people (estimate time: 10 mins per person per game) or opt for a table in the diner. As Vogue says, bowling is no longer a sport to be embarrassed about.
Social ping pong at its finest, Bounce is the brainchild of All Star Lanes founder Dov Penzik with interiors by by acclaimed British designer Russell Sage (also behind great looking places like The Hospital Club and The Savoy). With 28 ping pong tables at two London venues - in Farringdon and Shoreditch - there's plenty of space to play, including one official Olympic table. Food comes in the form of posh pizzas from a wood burning oven, bold meaty stews and whole roasted chickens, served at a raised restaurant overlooks the playing area. Refreshments are served from a 40ft arc bar and include classic gin cocktails, boutique beers and a short yet concise wine selection. There is a private room available for hire, equipped with private cocktail bar, specially commissioned tables and a DJ booth. Ping pong just got a whole lot cooler.
After three years of pop ups in places like the Truman Brewery, the shuffleboard experts, the London Shuffle Club, have a permanent home in Shoreditch from July 2018. New to the game? You'll soon pick it up. The sport originated on the decks of cruise ships in the early 20th century and tasks you with sliding your weighted pucks or 'biscuits' down a long, smooth wooden board and onto a scoring triangle at the opposite end of your lane. But beware: overshoot and you'll end up in the 'kitchen'. You won't have to do the washing up but you will loose 10 points and risk being mocked by your friends. The beauty of the game is that anyone can play - not just sporting freaks or gym geeks - and it can be played with a cocktail in hand. The large, tastefully designed, colourful space features an open-air shuffleboard terrace, guest ales and cocktails on rotation, served from an Airstream, as well as live music. With places like Flight Club and the Shuffle Club, London has a whole new world of stylish sports-in-bars.
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