What are the cheapest activity bars in London?
The short answer
The cheapest activity bars in London cost £12 or under per person at the times shown in the table below. Most of these prices apply only at certain times, such as weekday daytimes, Sunday to Tuesday or late evenings, and they cover the activity only, so food and drink cost extra.
The cheapest activity bars at a glance
| Activity | Venue | Price per person | When it applies |
|---|---|---|---|
| Board games | Draughts, Waterloo and Stratford | £7.95 (£9.95 at peak) | Midweek from opening until 4pm |
| Karaoke | Lucky Voice (five sites) | £8 | Off-peak: before 7pm Monday to Friday, 5pm Saturday and 6pm Sunday |
| Ping pong | Bounce, Battersea | £8 | Regular table, 55 minutes |
| Darts | Oche, The Strand | £9 | All day |
| Bowling | Rowans, Finsbury Park | £9.60 including admission | Monday to Friday before 6pm |
| Shuffleboard | Electric Shuffle, King’s Cross and London Bridge | £10 | Sunday to Tuesday |
| Cricket | Sixes Cricket, London Bridge | £10 | Off-peak slots: Monday to Saturday from 9pm, Saturday and Sunday 10am to 11am, Sunday from 5pm |
| Football | Toca Social, The O2 | From £10 | Bookings after 10pm |
| Clay shooting arcade | Clays, Soho | £10 | Before 4pm and on Sundays |
| Bingo | Hijingo, Shoreditch | From £10 | Sundays |
| Crazy golf | Swingers, West End | £12 | Any time |
Draughts, Waterloo and Stratford
From £7.95per person, midweek until 4pm
Draughts is a board game café where an adult pays £7.95 for up to three hours at a table, with more than 1,000 games to choose from and staff on hand to teach you the rules. That price applies midweek from opening until 4pm at both Waterloo and Stratford, and it rises to £9.95 at peak times, which means weekday evenings, weekends and bank holidays. Even the peak price is under £12, so Draughts is the one venue in this guide that fits the budget at any time. Under-12s play free, and 13 to 17-year-olds pay £4 off-peak or £5 at peak.
Where to play
Lucky Voice
From £8per person, off-peak (before 7pm on weekdays)
Lucky Voice lets you book a private karaoke room for your own group, and off-peak it costs £8 per person at all five of its London sites: Soho, Islington, Liverpool Street, Holborn and Waterloo. Peak pricing starts at 7pm Monday to Friday, 5pm on Saturday and 6pm on Sunday, so the cheaper slots are weekday afternoons and early evenings, Saturday before 5pm and Sunday before 6pm.
Where to play
Bounce, Battersea
From £8per person for a regular 55-minute session
Bounce is a ping pong bar inside Battersea Power Station, where a regular session on a standard table lasts 55 minutes and costs £8 per person. Bounce bills per person rather than per table, so everyone in the group pays the same even when some people are waiting for a turn. Weekday happy hour runs until 6pm at every Bounce venue, with 2-for-1 on cocktails, pints, wines and pizzas, and it needs no booking.
Where to play
Oche, The Strand
From £9per person, all day
Oche is a darts bar on the Strand where each group plays in its own booth with automatic scoring, so nobody has to add up scores or know the rules. A session costs £9 per person, which is £1 less than the lowest price at Flight Club, and the venue has a full kitchen and bar alongside the darts.
Where to play
Rowans, Finsbury Park
From £9.60per person including admission, Monday to Friday before 6pm
Rowans charges £9.60 per person for a game of bowling from Monday to Friday before 6pm, made up of an £8.60 game and a £1 admission fee, with shoe hire included in the game price. The total stays under £12 at nearly every other time as well: a weekday evening game comes to £10.70 all in, and Saturday daytime and Sunday come to £11.40. The exception is Friday and Saturday after 7pm, when the £5 admission fee takes a game to £15.80. Rowans is for over-21s only after 7pm, with photo ID checked at the door.
Where to play
Electric Shuffle, King’s Cross and London Bridge
From £10per person, Sunday to Tuesday
Electric Shuffle is a shuffleboard bar where you slide weighted pucks down a long board and the table scores every shot automatically. At King’s Cross and London Bridge the price is £10 per person from Sunday to Tuesday, and groups of 2 to 32 get their own semi-private area. All players must be 18 or over, and under-18s cannot play or stand around the board, even though children can eat in the bar areas before 5pm.
Where to play
Sixes Cricket, London Bridge
From £10per person, off-peak slots
Sixes Cricket at London Bridge puts each player in a batting net facing a ball machine, with sensors tracking how hard and how quickly you hit, and no cricket experience is needed. The off-peak price of £10 per person applies Monday to Saturday from 9pm, Saturday and Sunday from 10am to 11am, and Sunday from 5pm, while peak sessions cost up to £15.75. Session length grows with the size of the group at the same price per head, which suits larger groups.
Where to play
Toca Social, The O2
From £10per person, after 10pm
Toca Social at The O2 is an interactive football venue where your group kicks real footballs at giant screens from inside a private game box. The price per person is normally between £10 and £23 for the same session, depending on the hour, and bookings that start after 10pm can cost as little as £10. The booked time includes five minutes of clean-up, and booking is per person rather than per box. Evenings are for over-18s after 4pm on Fridays and Saturdays and after 7pm on other days.
Where to play
Clays, Soho
From £10per person for the arcade, before 4pm and on Sundays
Clays Arcade in Soho is a newer space with five quick-fire multiplayer games, where up to five players share each station, and it costs £10 per person before 4pm and on Sundays. Clays Soho is an adults-oriented licensed bar in an original 1930s Art Deco building. The virtual clay shooting that Clays is known for is booked separately, and its prices are not covered here.
Where to play
Hijingo, Shoreditch
From £10per person, Sundays
Hijingo is a theatrical bingo show in Shoreditch, with a virtual caller, live dancers and six rounds across a session, and tickets are from £10 per person on Sundays. A standard ticket on other days is from £16. Hijingo is strictly for over-18s, and because of the Gambling Act 2005 it cannot take credit cards for bingo, so you need a debit card.
Where to play
Swingers, West End
From £12per person, any time
Swingers charges £12 per person for a round on its nine-hole crazy golf course, which is the top of this guide’s price range. The price applies whenever you book, so there is no need to pick an off-peak slot, and the venue has four cocktail bars and street food around the course.
Where to play
The best cheap option for each type of group
Where is a cheap date spot in London?
Draughts, Waterloo suits a date because the game fills the time and gives you something to talk about. A pair pays £7.95 each midweek before 4pm or £9.95 at other times, for up to three hours at the table, and the venue is in the Leake Street tunnel a couple of minutes from Waterloo station.
Where is a cheap spot for a group of friends?
Rowans has 24 bowling lanes across two floors, with karaoke booths and pool tables in the same building, so a group can stay on after bowling. A weekday game costs £9.60 to £10.70 per person including admission.
Where is a cheap spot for an office social?
Electric Shuffle, King’s Cross suits colleagues because the table scores automatically, so nobody needs any skill, and groups of 2 to 32 get their own semi-private area. On Monday and Tuesday evenings the price is £10 per person, and everyone must be 18 or over.
Where is a cheap spot for families?
Rowans is the cheapest family bowling option here on weekdays before 6pm, when an adult pays £9.60 all in. Under-10s get free admission on weekdays before 6pm with an adult, children aged 12 and under get 50p off the game price, and under-12s are never admitted without an adult.
Where is a cheap spot for a big group?
Sixes Cricket, London Bridge takes groups from 6 upwards, and session length grows with group size at the same price per head, so a bigger group gets more time for the same £10 off-peak price. The off-peak slots are late evenings, early weekend mornings and Sunday from 5pm.
How do you find a cheap activity bar in London?
Go off-peak
Most prices on this page depend on when you go, so a group with flexible timing can save a good deal compared with one that only books Friday and Saturday evenings. At Rowans, for example, twelve people playing two games pay close to £90 more on a Friday evening than on a Thursday.
Weekday daytime
Draughts and RowansDraughts is cheapest until 4pm and Rowans until 6pm.Sunday to Tuesday
Electric Shuffle and HijingoElectric Shuffle drops its price from Sunday to Tuesday, and Hijingo on Sundays.Early evening
Lucky VoiceOff-peak karaoke runs until 7pm on weekdays, 5pm on Saturdays and 6pm on Sundays.Late evening
Sixes Cricket and Toca SocialSixes is cheaper from 9pm Monday to Saturday, and Toca Social after 10pm.Look for discounts
Several venues cut the price further for particular groups or times. Sixes Cricket has a student discount, Electric Shuffle offers hospitality workers free shuffleboard on Sundays and Mondays, and Bounce runs 2-for-1 drinks and pizzas until 6pm on weekdays. Some venues also charge less online than at the door, so it is worth booking ahead where you can.
Offers change often. Check the venue’s own booking page before you book.