This Valentine's Day, I had reserved spaces for the bloke and I to go to Swingers. Before I continue - No, not *that* kind of event; Swingers is a pop-up crazy golf course located in Shoreditch. The pop-up nine-hole golf course (with bar, street food, and music available) opened in September last year. It closes at the end of this month, and advance tickets for golf are sold out, but tickets to access the venue (grounds tickets) can still be purchased. It's possible to get a ticket for the venue and buy tickets for golf, as long as they're not too busy.
Our journey started in Basingstoke (dubbed 'Beautiful Basingstoke' today) where we got the train to London. Basingstoke train station had Valentine's Day balloons and hearts all over the place, and London Waterloo became "London Waterlove" for the day! All of the stations were given romanticised names as South West Trains embarked upon their social media campaign #SWTValentine. Note that our train was running late! No surprises there...
After arriving into Waterloo, we made our way across London to Shoreditch where the venue is located in an old warehouse off of Curtain Road. Our slot was the 12:30 slot, and that is also the time that they open.
We were among the first to enter, so we were the very first two to play our round of golf. We were also told that since we were first, we'd get through the nine-hole course very quickly and could come back to play another round.
We received our golf clubs, balls (I had a green one and the partner had a red one) and score card and hit the course. I needed a little bit of practice as it's been a few years since I have played a game of crazy (putt putt or miniature) golf.
As we started to play our second hole, we were asked if we wanted to place an order for drinks. The staff at Swingers do come around to ask players if they'd like to order a drink. You do need to have cash to pay for it. We ordered a couple of drinks and resumed our game.
The nine courses were all varying in difficulty. I took a photograph of a few of the different holes. One required getting the ball to go inside a loop-de-loop. Another required hitting the ball up a spiral ramp. Others required going around a 'pond' or on a narrow patch between sand bars.
After our two games, we decided to grab our lunch. As it was Valentine's Day, they were giving out free glasses of rose sparkling Cava (CordonRosado) at the food ordering point. We each got a glass.
My partner ordered from "Flippin Cow", which sold a selection of hamburgers and a chicken burger option. His included cheese and onion rings on the burger, and they do include a signature relish, but he had his without this. We had to wait awhile for his to be ready, so I watched them cooking the burgers at the back of their pop-up. They used a blow torch to melt the cheese around the burgers. According to the SwingersLDN website, different street food stalls serve guests during the duration of the pop-up, and Flippin Cow is in residency here for one month.
I ordered the cheese pizza from "Pizza Pilgrims". I have never had pizza from them before, but I have heard that it is meant to be good pizza. And I was not disappointed. The pizza was delicious with slightly chewy and tasty bread and delicious cheese and sauce. "Pizza Pilgrims" is their permanent street food vendor for the duration of the pop-up.
A long bar area is also available, and they do have themed cocktails, but we did not have any. (I may have had one had I seen the cocktail menus available). Each day also has its own DJ with the main party happening in the evenings. The music being played was love songs for Valentine's Day, and I'm glad that the music was alright and nothing tacky. When I think of love songs, I tend to think of cheesey 1980s power ballads, which I really dislike. I'm glad I was not forced to suffer to this type of music while I chewed on my pizza and sipped my rose Cava.
We had an awesome fun day, and I'm glad we got to go; it did make a good Valentine's Day activity. I'd originally planned to go after work (as I work in east London and about a ten or fifteen-minute walk from the venue), but the tickets for the after-work slot had all been booked by the times I went to check for more tickets.
For more information about this pop-up and to make a reservation, visit their website at http://swingersldn.co.uk.
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