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8 Brown’s Buildings
(Between Bury Street and St Mary Axe)
London EC3A 8AL
020 3846 3222
Cost: £13.00 per 9 holes
Par: 21 (9 holes – each
course)
Lighthouse
Course Windmill
Course
Difficulty: 5 Difficulty: 8
Creativity: 8 Creativity: 8
Atmosphere: 9 Atmosphere:
9
This
course sits in central London right at the base of the Gerhkin
building. It’s a great location and the
place was hopping on a Tuesday night when we visited. Just be aware that this is an 18+ venue so
unfortunately (or fortunately) no kids are allowed here. Each course is 9 holes and they are set in
back of the restaurant and bar area. It has almost a speakeasy feel as it’s
downstairs and the sign over the entrance, while neon, is actually a bit
inconspicuous. There is a coat room which is also nice given it was a bit warm
in there and you don’t want to have to drag your outerwear along the whole
evening.
We
arrived early to partake in the food and drink selection and we were quite
happy. The course has a handful of
outside food vendors who cater it and we can say the pizza was so good we
actually went up for second helpings.
The drinks are fair as well, with a good selection of beer, and the cost
overall was what you’d expect for food in central London. You can also get served while on the course
which is lovely.
The
courses themselves are great to play.
They were both in very good condition considering the volume of people
who play through there and their level of possible intoxication. The borders of the holes and most of the
obstacles are made of strong wood, almost looking like sections of railroad
ties. This makes the holes have an
appeasing aesthetic look, allows for a good bounce on the balls and the
material seems like it can take a beating. The course did have some real sand
traps as well and despite the fact that these can get very messy on some
courses it seemed to be under control here.
There are also plenty of places to put your beverage down while putting
which is nice – just try to remember which is yours! The course also provides WiFi,
which is good because the cell coverage is rough the course being in a basement
and all, and you can use their scorecard app for iPhone. At the end of the round you can submit your
score and try to get to the top of their live leaderboard shown in the main
section of the restaurant.
There
wasn’t much in the way of true minigolf obstacles
except for the giant loops on both courses and the lighthouse you putted
through. However, that didn’t keep them
from coming up with creative ways to design the holes and make the best use of
the space available. While the themes of
some hole designs were the same on the two courses, the execution was different
enough and the other holes varied enough, to keep the creativity score high.
Even the holes that were short had different designs and were in fact quite
challenging. The lighthouse course was
definitely the easier of the two and if you’re an avid putter and play it more
than once you have a good shot of going below par. The windmill course if definitely more
challenging with a few holes where it is easy to drop strokes. However, both of the courses do have their
ace opportunities.
There
are a few minor drawbacks that kept us from giving this course the highest
marks. The first is that it is a bit
cramped and given there were a lot of people there when we visited it felt like
you were constantly dodging people as you moved around the course or tried to
get set up for a putt. Everyone was friendly about it though and since it was
all adults and not kids it didn’t feel like someone was just randomly butting
into your experience. Given the volume of
people and the music (which is always good to have) it is a bit loud on the
course as well so you need a beverage or two to make sure your throat is coated
if you want to talk to your friends all evening. We would have liked to see the
windmill on the course be an actual obstacle like the lighthouse but instead it
was set up over one of the holes. The
cost is a bit high but again factoring you aren’t paying for a child to play
should not deter you from a visit though we can see where multiple visits might
be tough to consider if you aren’t an avid golfer. As much as we like that it is an 18+
experience, that does knock it down just a bit on the overall minigolf scale given we love that miniature golf is a sport
that can played by all.
Overall,
we would highly recommend stopping by and playing this course. Allow yourself the time and money to play
both courses and have a meal for the full experience.
Additional Notes: While our review of the
course is unbiased we do want to say we received excellent treatment when we
were there. We ended up being treated
with some personal hospitality and we are incredibly grateful for the great
time we were shown that evening. Even
the folks who didn’t know who we were out on the course were very friendly and
accommodating. We want to thank the course for a great time and being a good
part of the wider miniature golf community.
Reviewed
by Pat & LEGO Penguin
Reviewed
in 2017
Course Pictures (click to enlarge)
Map