2020 Archery

So much fun — we came here for hen party and with about 30 of us in attendance I thought it might be a long time between having a go, but not at all! Plenty of space and great instructors. The shooting gallery (if that is what you call it) is in the roof though and is fairly chilly so remember layers if you are going in the winter.

I took a 5-​week intro class at the Southwark location. For £125, I thought it was great value. Each session is about 2.5 hours. I really liked my instructor, and I’m kicking myself now that I CAN’T remember his name (I swear this is a reflection on me, because I am AWFUL with names). The classes are very fun and the hours zoom by. If you’re a bit competitive like me though, sometimes you forget that everyone is there to learn and have fun ;)
Anyway, we were divided into two groups that generally stayed together for the entire duration of lessons. For the earlier sessions there is a lot of emphasis on safety and practicing technique, but for the later sessions you can expect to be shooting for the majority of the time on the floor. There’s naturally a bit of standing around because you have to take turns with the target board, but I actually enjoy that with team sports because you get to know your teammates. My fellow coursemates were lovely, and we all got on well enough that we planned to join the club together and shoot more in the future.
You have to attend pretty much every class to get the intro certification in order to join the club. That seems fair though — when people are shooting pointy things at high speeds, you want to make sure that everyone knows what they’re doing, at some basic level at least! I haven’t been to the London Bridge range yet but one of these days, I will get my butt down there…

We came here for a stag do (Peter Sebastian, now a married man. Sorry, ladies!) and it was a lot of fun. The two instructors were thorough but got into the spirit of it, and I know we all had a whale of a time. I would recommend it.

Nice place, friendly staff. Make sure you dress up though as the place is not heated (as is the case with most indoor archeries).