Jack & Boule are bringing to London a brand new gaming venue for summer. In fact, they’re packing 10,000 sq ft of space with 8 gravel-filled lanes at their new venue (5 min walk from Waterloo station) for Londoners to try their hand at urban Boules.
I went along to see whether it was really worth giving a toss.
I want to say the staff are incredibly friendly. They took the time out to explain the rules of the game to everyone who walked into the venue and then allowed you to throw out the rules completely and play whatever way suits you best. I like that.
If you are interested to know beforehand, here is how to play:
You split into teams, and someone chucks the jack down the court. Then, you take turns throwing your boules as close to the jack as possible… orrr attempting to ruthlessly snipe your opponents boules out of the way. At the end, whoever gets their boule closest to the jack wins the point (and gets extra points for each other boule that’s nearer than their opponents’ closest one). First team to 13 point wins.
Having understood the aim of the game we gave it a go and I have to say it is way more fun than I had initially assumed it would be. For someone with zero hand-eye coordination I surprised myself.
One thing I will say is that it gets very dusty because of the heavy boules on the gravel. Wear comfy/closed shoes and be prepared to get maybe slightly dusty.
Once you’re done with playing, you can refuel at one of 3 street food options – Burgers at Nanny Bill’s, Lebanese from Lil’Watan and Mexican from Rico Burrito. All 3 have halal options available but Lil Watan was clearly labelled as halal so we opted for that. The wraps and chips banged. If they let me in just for food, I prob would go just for that. There’s also plenty of seating on either side of the venue and of course an instagrammable swing. There’s also there’s a shipping container bar which will be supplied by Siren microbrewery, who’ve even gone as far as brewing a special Jack & Boules lager just for the pop up.
Where: 101 Upper Ground, London, SE1 9PP
When: From 15th June – 22nd October
Tickets: Get your tickets for Jack & Boule here.
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I’m Rosie!
