A Saturday night out bowling wouldn’t usually be my cup of tea. The prospect of hanging out with a bunch of frustrated fourteen year old chavs and rude boys arguing over who’s got dibs on the Britney clone in the adjacent aisle or how to dupe the bartender into believing they’re old enough to buy a round of Bacardi Breezer's doesn’t fill me with feelings of utter glee, to say the least. However, as soon as I arrived at the entrance to this relatively new venue I could tell that I was in for a treat, something a bit more special than the stereotypical night out I’d associate with that of the pram-face brigade.
To begin with, like the organised(!) person that I am, I managed to arrange a guest list. (Mainly because I’m a cheapskate and the opportunity to get £2 off the entry price made me feel as though I was somehow ‘doing over’ The System, or something). We arrived pretty early and breezed straight to the front of the queue. As we walked down to the main part of the venue we passed through the small cinema-esque room on which the modestly sized screen was playing an old-skool teen flick, Revenge of the Nerds. The main room was dressed up 50’s décor stylee, like those American diner types you see in films. It was already seriously packed and all my best intentions of arriving early to secure bowling lanes quickly flew out the window.
A quick look around confirmed that Bloomsbury Bowling is a comfortable size, enough room to explore but not so big that if you lose your mates there’s no hope of finding them again without putting out an embarrassing message over some dodgy tannoy system. There’s a separate dining area where they serve mini hamburgers and other typical American fayre, which, I have to admit, actually did look tasty and was reasonably priced. There is plenty of seating, quite a few bowling lanes, some pool, a large horseshoe shaped bar, good sized dance-floor aaand, get this, karaoke booths for all you budding young popstars out there to strut your vocal skills.
The crowd was a pretty eclectic mix, some dressed up in 50’s and 60’s clothes, teddy boys and rockabilly chicks amongst those in their standard jeans and T’s (I opted for the 50’s granny-chic look). There was a good spread of ages present too, but luckily none of those annoying teenage ASBO types – god now I sound like one of those perturbed Tunbridge Wells housewives with nothing better to do than write letters of complaint to the BBC about the inclusion of swear words in their programming before the watershed…
I had a little giggle peeking through the window of one of the karaoke booths to watch a group of drunken happy people prancing around and generally enjoying a sing-along, scowled jealously at the early-birds who actually got their butts into gear to book bowling lanes in advance and generally had a good boogey on down to some classics from the ‘good old days’.
This venue has been hailed as one of the new places to be seen on a Saturday night. There is such a variety of things to do and it makes a nice change to hanging out in just another shady drinking hole. The music was wide ranging, including some classic 50’s and 60’s, some soul, rock ‘n’ roll, surf guitar, a bit of new wave stuff, as well as modern interpretations of those sounds. My advice would be to book way in advance if you want to bowl as they have a limited number of first come first served lanes on the night. The drinks are slightly more expensive than pub prices but will by no means leave you skint for the rest of the month. Also, arrive early because even the guest list queue ended up succumbing to the one-in-one-out door policy as the night wore on. The décor rocked, the clientele were friendly and the service was pretty good too. Check it out, hang with the cool kids. Much better than an evening in chewing your toenails I’d say!
Shake, Rattle and Bowl, Bloomsbury Bowling, Basement of The Tavistock Hotel, WC1H.
First Saturday of the month: 8pm-3am.
Entry: £6/£5 w/flyer /£4 w/guest list.
Bowling: £5.50 per game.
Karaoke booths: Price dependent on size of room and charged per hour.
Closest tubes: Russel Square / Euston.
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