Ping pong or table tennis, call it what you want, this sociable sport is having a revolution in the UK at the moment… Hopping firmly on that band wagon, Bounce, with locations in Battersea, Farringdon and Old Street, is styling itself as the home of ping pong in the capital. We checked it out in May 2024 for some ping pong fun in London with our tweens.
I treated myself to a meal at Dans Le Noir for my 21st (again) birthday (read my review here) with my hubby and boys (then aged 10 and 11). I knew we would have an hour or so to kill in the Farringdon area before our lunchtime reservation. So I was looking for something fun and active to do with the boys first. It’s always quiet around Farringdon on a Sunday (when all the city workers are at home). There’s also a bit of dearth of museums / galleries etc. I found Bounce through an internet search. I thought it sounded perfect for my 10 year old, who had recently joined a table tennis club at school.
Booking a session at Bounce
At Bounce, you reserve online for a 55 minute slot. Tables are available for 4 people and cost from £6 per person. I’m guessing prices may be higher for the popular evening slots. However, our Sunday 12pm session was £24 for the 4 of us.
The price includes bats and balls. When we arrived, the receptionist handed me a full basket of balls. Having not played table tennis for some years, I joked that she must think we were really bad players to need that many balls…. Sure enough, after about 15 minutes our basket was empty…. Luckily, one of the assistants quickly topped up our basket (his sole job appeared to be retrieving escapee balls with a grabber-like contraption). It is refreshing that Bounce doesn’t expect you to run after every ball you miss. In fact, they encourage you not to so you don’t get in the way of people on other tables). This is great and allows for a faster paced game.
Is Bounce fun for teens and tweens?
My 10 year old turned out to be a bit of a demon on the table, with some killer serves. I was a bit rubbish (according to the kids!) We played doubles to start with but kept getting in one another’s way so ended up on singles. Ping pong demon-son suggested winner stays on (so I had some chill time with my drink….). All in all it was a really fun way to spend an hour and had us all laughing. It was good value (particularly for London) and definitely one we would do again if we had an hour to spare in London near one of their venues.
If you are feeling a little more high tech, they also have Ping Pong X (with AI technology to track and score your game). For a change, you can also play shuttle board (no idea how this works) or beer pong (looks fun!).
There is a bar (which appeared to serve a good range of cocktails – 12pm was a little early for me to put this to the test….). They also serve sourdough pizzas and snack food such as chicken wings, tempura veg and loaded fries.
Ping pong at Bounce was a fun way to spend an hour with teens or tweens in London. Click here to find more fun things to do in London with teens and tweens.
