London Bowling Alleys
moove2london on 03 Dec 2009London Bowling has been transformed in recent years with the arrival of the American-style diner bowling alleys that are now dotted across Inner London. Here we’ll review both these new style venues and some of the old favourites.
All Star Lanes opened their first bowling alley in London, in Holborn in January 2006. The success of this has led to the opening of the Bayswater branch in mid-2007 and the most recent at Brick Lane in November 2008. There are more venues currently being planned to open across the UK. All Star Lanes has injected glamour back into the face of London bowling. The three current venues all vary slightly in style, but they all centre around a typical American theme. The food on the diner-style menu includes dishes such as burgers, fries, quesadillas, ‘Texas Chilli con Carne’, ‘Mac and Cheese’ and ‘Bourbon Glazed Back Baby Ribs’. As far as drinks are concerned, the list is endless. Beers tend to be of the American bottled variety with Sierra Nevada, Blue Moon, Brooklyn Chocolate Stout and Dixie Lager all being served. There is also a huge selection of wines and champagnes to choose from. But the real highlight of the drinks menu has got to be their extensive cocktail list. Current trends are frequently twinning karoake and bowling together and the Brick Lane branch of All Star Lanes is no exception. They offer two karaoke booths – Country or Western – with room for either 7 or 14 people. The songlist offers over 5,500 songs. For birthday parties, hen/stag dos and other special occasions, private rooms are available to hire at all of the venues. They contain 2 bowling alleys, a private cocktail bar and your own bartender. Contact All Star Lanes for details on pricing which varies depending on the time and day of the week that you wish to attend.
Bloomsbury Bowling is located just off Russell Square, extremely close to the Holborn branch of All Star Lanes, mentioned above. It’s arguably less popular than All Star, but follows a very similar American-style diner and cocktails theme. The venue contains 8 lanes and 4 karoake rooms, ranging from 6-8 people to 15-20. The karaoke is actually extremely affordable and can easily work at each person paying £5-6 for two hours of screeching, depending on when you go and how many people you go with. The songlist has a whopping 7,000 tunes. The bar at the alley also prides itself on serving an eclectic range of draught beers, including Bitburger, Meantime and Bernard.
Across town in West London is Queens Ice and Bowl, located at Queensway, Bayswater. As is obvious from the name, the venue houses an indoor ice skating rink as well as the bowling alley. The rink is open every day of the year, including Christmas Day. It caters for parties, but also offers private lessons. Lots of snack food is available ranging from burgers, hotdogs, nachos and pizzas to beautiful Italian ice cream available from Bella Gelato, housed inside the venue.
Heading to South London now and we’re going to Elephant and Castle Shopping Centre. Not very glamourous at all, the Superbowl is housed on the top floor of the shopping centre next to the Bingo hall. The advantages of going to this place are that there are lots of lanes and that it’s really quite cheap. You can get extraordinarily cheap pitchers of lager. This is worth a visit if you live in South London and want to get quite a few games in, but is certainly not worth travelling to if you’re looking for ambience!
Rowans Bowling in Finsbury Park has been around for decades. People from all of North London flock to the venue, not just to bowl on one of it’s 24 lanes, but to play pool on any of it’s 19 tables and watch sport on huge TV screens. It’s also a place that comes alive late at night. At the weekends, the two-floors offer dance music being played until 2.30am.
So, these are the best of London’s bowling alleys. It’s usually best to book in advance to avoid queuing. If you want to impress your friends with a multitude of strikes, then swot up on your bowling technique by reading Bowling Execution by PBA Hall of Fame coach John Jowdy.
Bowling is again popular in London thanks to the launch of Bloomsbury Bowling in 2005 and then the Star Bowling chain. I’d recommend both. Bloomsbury is a one off and a real part of London’s nighlife scene so well worth checking out. Some people will prefer the more TGIF/ Hard Rock Cafe look of All Stars. Both doo good food
West London has a couple with Queens Bowl rapidly improving.