London now has dozens of bars with a game attached: crazy golf courses in basements, electronic dartboards that score themselves, shuffleboard, duck-pin bowling and simulated cricket. Darts and shuffleboard start at about £10 a person; bowling and mix-and-match deals run to £14 to £28 a person. Most take walk-ins for the bar but not for the game, and almost all of them shut children out after late afternoon.
The industry calls this competitive socialising. What it means in practice is a licensed bar where the activity is the reason you booked a table, food and drink come to you while you play, and the bill is a booking fee per person plus whatever you eat and drink. It is an evening out rather than a family afternoon, with a few exceptions that we set out below.
Every venue named on this page was checked on the Food Standards Agency register before we wrote it, and we do not name anything rated below 3. Prices were read on each operator's own site in September 2026 and change often; several of them publish no price at all outside their booking system, and we say so rather than guessing.
What it costs, venue by venue
| Venue | Where | Game | Published price | Hygiene rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Flight Club | Angel, Shoreditch, Victoria | Electronic darts | From £10 a person | 5 (2025-26) |
| Electric Shuffle | Canary Wharf, King's Cross | Shuffleboard | From £10 a person | 5 (2025-26) |
| Roxy Ball Room | Old Street | Darts, shuffle, duck-pin bowling, karaoke, pool | £14 a person; two activities £21, three £28 | 5 (July 2026) |
| Puttshack | Westfield London, and 1 Poultry in the City | Crazy golf, 9 holes | Not published outside booking | 5 (2026) |
| Clays | Brewer Street, Moorgate, Canary Wharf | Simulated clay shooting | Not published outside booking | 5, 5 and 4 (2025) |
| Fairgame | One New Change, Canary Wharf | Electronic fairground games | Not published outside booking | 5 (2025) |
| TOCA Social | Westfield London, The O2 | Interactive football | Not published outside booking | 5 (2025) |
| Sixes Social Cricket | Boxpark Wembley, Southwark, Fulham | Batting nets | Not published outside booking | 5 (2025-26) |
Ratings and inspection dates are from the Food Standards Agency register, checked in September 2026.
Social darts, and the £10 that is not the whole bill
Flight Club is the one most visitors mean when they say social darts. It runs three London venues: Angel on Upper Street, Shoreditch on Worship Street and Victoria at Sir Simon Milton Square. The format is seven multiplayer games played on an electronic oche that does the scoring, with slow-motion replay cameras, and food and drinks brought to you while you play.
The published figure is that Social Darts starts at £10 a person. Read that as the entry fee for a booked slot, not the cost of the evening: cocktails and pizza are the business model, and a couple of rounds will double it. For a group of six, £60 buys the oche and nothing else.
Electric Shuffle works the same way with shuffleboard, at two London sites: Canary Wharf and King's Cross. It also starts at £10 a person, takes groups of two to thirty-two, and says you can pop in on the day or book a table.
Roxy Ball Room is the one that publishes a proper price list. At its Old Street venue, duck-pin bowling, tech darts, tech shuffle and karaoke are each £14 a person, and the mix-and-match deals are two activities for £21 a head and three for £28. There is a minimum of four people for karaoke on Saturdays, and a maximum of ten per pool table or dartboard.
Crazy golf: two different propositions
The crazy golf venues are not interchangeable, and the differences matter more than the courses do.
Puttshack is the family one. Its two London sites are in Westfield London at White City and at 1 Poultry in the City near Bank, and it welcomes children at both, though it recommends age seven and up because younger players find the holes hard. A game is nine holes and takes about 30 minutes. Groups of up to twelve can book online; above that you have to enquire. You may drink at each hole but not eat while playing, so the meal goes before or after, and the venue asks you to arrive 15 minutes before your tee time, or an hour if you are eating first.
Plonk Golf is the small, scruffy, more likeable version: an outdoor nine-hole course in a railway arch near London Fields in Hackney, and a much bigger indoor one under four arches by Borough Market, decorated with graffiti murals of London landmarks. But do not go yet.
Plonk's London venues were closed when we checked. Its website carried a notice in September 2026 saying the venues reopen on 3 December. If you have read about the Hackney arch or the London Bridge course somewhere else, check before you travel: this is a seasonal business and the notice had no year on it.
The other formats worth knowing about
Beyond golf and darts, four more games have been given a bar.
- Clays builds its rooms around simulated clay-pigeon shooting, at Brewer Street in Soho, Moorgate in the City and Cabot Square in Canary Wharf. All three are on the register; the Canary Wharf branch was rated 4 and the other two 5.
- Fairgame puts electronic versions of fairground stalls in one room, at One New Change by St Paul's and in Canary Wharf.
- TOCA Social is interactive football, with target games projected onto a wall, at Westfield London and at The O2. It is the most child-friendly of the group after Puttshack.
- Sixes Social Cricket gives you a batting net and a bowling machine, at Boxpark Wembley, in Southwark and in Fulham. Our guide to watching football in London is the other end of the same instinct.
Children: the rule that catches families out
Nearly all of these places are bars with a licence, and the licence shapes who can come in and when. The pattern is an afternoon window for families and adults only afterwards.
Flight Club is the clearest about it: anyone aged 12 or over can play Social Darts from Sunday to Friday until 4.30pm when accompanied by an adult, and families are given their own area. That means Saturday is out entirely, and so is any weekday evening.
Puttshack and TOCA Social are the two that work as a daytime family outing rather than an exception to an adult venue. Everywhere else, ring or read the venue's own policy: a games bar's rules change with the hour, and staff will refuse entry rather than argue.
The law behind it is straightforward and worth knowing: in England it is illegal for under-18s to buy alcohol or to be sold it, and 16 and 17 year olds may drink beer, wine or cider with a meal if an adult buys it, but not buy it themselves. Venues also operate Challenge 25, so anyone who looks under 25 should carry photographic identification. Our guide to London with kids has daytime alternatives, and London with teenagers covers the awkward ages.
Which ones take walk-ins
The honest answer is that most take walk-ins for the bar and not for the game. Flight Club says walk-ins are always welcome, particularly for food and drink, but strongly recommends booking to guarantee a table at busy times. Electric Shuffle invites you to pop in or book. Puttshack allocates a course to your group size when you book, which is a polite way of saying that turning up on a Friday night is optimistic.
Two practical rules. Book anything in the City between Thursday and Saturday, because these venues fill with office groups and are dead on Mondays. And if there are more than twelve of you, expect to fill in an enquiry form rather than book online: most of these operators cap online bookings at around a dozen.
Monday to Wednesday is when these places are cheap and empty. The whole sector is built around office nights out, so a Tuesday evening in the City means a free dartboard, attentive staff and happy-hour drinks, while the same venue on Thursday is booked out and loud. If you are visiting London midweek, this is one of the few things that is better then.
What we have left out, and why
Two things are missing from this page deliberately.
We do not name any business rated below 3 by the Food Standards Agency, whatever its reputation, and one well-known London games venue was excluded on exactly that ground after an inspection in August 2026. We have told the editor which one.
We also do not link to any of these venues. Several of them are large chains with straightforward websites, but the rule we apply to bars and restaurants is that we name them and let you search rather than send you to a domain that may change hands. For the same reason, be careful with the first search result for a small independent venue.
Getting home afterwards
These places close late, and that is part of the planning. The Night Tube runs on Friday and Saturday nights on the Central, Jubilee, Northern, Piccadilly and Victoria lines and on the Overground's Windrush line, which covers Old Street indirectly, Angel on the Northern line, Victoria, Canary Wharf on the Jubilee and Oxford Circus on three lines. On other nights it is night buses.
If you are drinking, our advice on getting home late in London covers the licensed-minicab rules and which stations stay staffed. And if the group cannot agree on a game at all, escape rooms, ice skating and the coin-operated machines at Novelty Automation in Holborn solve the same problem for less money.
Frequently asked questions
How much does crazy golf cost in London?
Most venues publish their prices only inside their booking systems, so the answer depends on the day and time. For comparison, the venues that do publish a figure charge from £10 a person for darts or shuffleboard and £14 a person for bowling, with mix-and-match deals at £21 for two activities and £28 for three. Expect the golf to sit in the same range, and expect food and drink on top.
Can children go to Flight Club or a crazy golf bar?
Sometimes, in the afternoon. Flight Club allows anyone aged 12 or over to play from Sunday to Friday until 4.30pm with an adult, in a family area, and not at all on Saturdays or in the evenings. Puttshack and TOCA Social welcome children throughout, with adult supervision. Everywhere else, check the venue's own policy for the day and hour you want.
Do you need to book, or can you walk in?
Walk in for a drink, book for the game. Flight Club and Electric Shuffle both accept walk-ins but recommend booking, and on Thursday to Saturday nights in the City you will not get a table without one. Groups above about twelve usually have to submit an enquiry rather than book online.
Are these places only for office parties?
Mostly, and their pricing shows it. Midweek is the exception: on a Monday to Wednesday evening the same venue is quiet, the staff have time and the drinks deals are better. Two people can book a dartboard or a shuffleboard from £10 each without feeling out of place.
Is crazy golf a good rainy-day option in London?
Yes for the indoor venues, which is most of them. Puttshack, Clays, Fairgame, TOCA Social and the Borough Market branch of Plonk are all under cover; Plonk's Hackney course is outdoors. See our wider list of what to do in London on a rainy day for cheaper alternatives.
Sources
- Food Standards Agency - food hygiene ratings for every venue named on this page (checked September 2026)
- GOV.UK - Alcohol and young people: the law (checked September 2026)
- Transport for London - Night Tube (checked September 2026)