What types of activities can I do in London?

London's competitive socialising venues cover darts, bowling, golf and crazy golf, shuffleboard and boules, clay shooting, sports and ice skating, bingo and karaoke, arcades and board games, immersive experiences and escape rooms, and all-rounders that combine several of these in one building.

What types of activities exist in London?

London has a wide range of places built around playing games together, and the choice goes well beyond the pub quiz. You can throw darts with automatic scoring, kick a football at a giant screen, sing in a private karaoke room or take part in a live bingo show. Most of these venues serve food and drink to your group while you play, and they are designed so that nobody needs any experience. This guide walks through each type of activity, explains how it works and links to the venues on Where To Go London where you can try it.

List of activity types

Darts

Social darts is one of the easiest ways to get a mixed group playing. Flight Club, Shoreditch, Flight Club, Victoria, Flight Club, Bloomsbury and Flight Club, Islington all run it, as does Oche, The Strand, which has a full kitchen attached. Each group gets its own lane with a dartboard, cameras track every throw and the scoring is done for you, so nobody needs to do the maths.

Bowling

Bowling suits groups who want to chat between turns. All Star Lanes, Brick Lane, Holborn, Stratford and White City run boutique lanes with a diner menu. Lane7, Victoria adds mini golf, shuffleboard and an 18+ arcade hall downstairs, and Hollywood Bowl, The O2 offers thirteen tenpin lanes alongside duckpin bowling, an arcade and pool. Rowans, Finsbury Park is the long-running North London option with bowling, karaoke and pool in one building.

Golf and crazy golf

Mini golf in London ranges from classic crazy golf to technology-led courses. At Puttshack, Bank and Puttshack, White City, each ball carries a chip and screens track your score automatically. Swingers, West End has a nine-hole crazy golf course with four cocktail bars and street food, and Topgolf, Chigwell offers scored driving range games in heated bays.

Shuffleboard and boules

Shuffleboard means sliding weighted pucks down a long board to score points, and most people pick it up within a few rounds. Electric Shuffle, London Bridge, King's Cross and Canary Wharf give each group its own board with instant digital scoring, and players must be 18 or over. Boules is the French game of throwing metal balls close to a small target. Boulebar, South Bank has 20 courts behind the National Theatre, Boulebar, Spitalfields has ten indoor courts, and Crazy Boules, Elephant & Castle plays on crazy-golf-style tracks inside Mercato Metropolitano.

Clay shooting

Virtual clay shooting gives you the feel of clay pigeon shooting without any real ammunition. Motion-tracked controllers fire at clays on screens, and live scores appear for the whole group. You can play at Clays, Soho, Clays, Canary Wharf and Clays, City, the original site near Moorgate.

Sports and ice skating

Several venues turn well-known sports into social games. Toca Social, The O2 and Toca Social, White City let you kick real footballs at interactive screens inside a private area for your group. Sixes Cricket, London Bridge, Stratford and Wembley put players in batting nets with a machine feeding the balls, and Bounce, Battersea brings social ping pong to Battersea Power Station. For ice skating, Alexandra Palace Ice Rink offers year-round public sessions, and Lee Valley Ice Centre in Leyton and Streatham Ice and Leisure Centre also have public skating.

Bingo and karaoke

Bingo in London has moved a long way from the church hall. Hijingo, Shoreditch is a theatrical show with live dancers and a virtual caller, and guests must be 18 or over. Dabbers Social Bingo, Aldgate runs themed nights with a shared table at each show. For karaoke, Lucky Voice has private rooms at Soho, Islington, Liverpool Street, Holborn and Waterloo, with drinks ordered to your room.

Arcades and board games

Arcades and board games suit groups who want a slower pace and plenty of time to talk. NQ64, Shoreditch and NQ64, Soho are retro arcades with a cocktail bar attached. Fairgame, Canary Wharf and Fairgame, City are adults-only funfairs with fairground games, and Draughts, Waterloo and Draughts, Stratford are board game cafés with more than 1,000 games to choose from.

Immersive experiences and escape rooms

Immersive venues build a whole experience around the game. The Crystal Maze LIVE Experience, West End recreates the 90s TV show, Immersive Gamebox, Southbank uses motion tracking in private game rooms, and SPYSCAPE, Covent Garden is an interactive spy museum with team challenges. For escape rooms, clueQuest, King's Cross, Mission: Breakout, Kentish Town and Escape Hunt, Oxford Street each offer several themed rooms where a team solves puzzles to get out.

All-rounders

All-rounders put several activities in one building, which helps when a group cannot agree. Boom Battle Bar combines axe throwing, darts, crazy golf, shuffleboard and karaoke, with sites at Oxford Street, Liverpool Street, The O2, Wandsworth and Ealing. Roxy Ball Room offers duckpin bowling, pool, darts and karaoke at Old Street, with further sites at St Mary Axe and Holborn. Queens Skate Dine Bowl, Bayswater combines an ice rink with 17 bowling lanes, and Gravity Max, Wandsworth adds karting, VR and batting cages.

How to decide on an activity

Start with who is coming. A mixed group of colleagues usually enjoys something that scores automatically and needs no skill, such as darts, shuffleboard or virtual clay shooting. A group that wants to talk between turns suits bowling, crazy golf or a board game café, while birthdays and hen or stag dos often suit the louder, show-style options such as bingo. If the group cannot agree, an all-rounder lets people pick their own game.

Check the age rules before you book, because several venues are 18+ for every session and others change their rules in the evening.

Where To Go London compares every venue on the same four things: price, time of day, the group it suits best and the type of activity. Browse our activities page to see every venue grouped by activity and find the right one for your group, and read how we research venues to see how we check each detail.