Archery Range by London Bridge: £29.50 Have-a-Go Session

2020 Archery runs its £29.50 Have-a-Go sessions in a Bermondsey youth club hall a short walk from London Bridge, and every session is booked online by date. The weekend sessions happen at the Downside Centre on Coxson Place, off Druid Street, London SE1 2EZ, with occasional Monday evening sessions at Harris Academy, 55 Southwark Park Road, London SE16 3TZ. Each 90-minute slot includes tuition, kit hire and insurance, and the club says you get at least an hour of fairly free shooting.

The Downside Centre is the Downside Settlement and Fisher Youth Club, tucked into Coxson Place under the railway arches of Druid Street. The club's directions say you are right opposite the Porsche garage called Lucky Motors, which is the easiest landmark to look for. London Bridge station is the closest main-line stop, and the walk takes you past the arches that house Bermondsey's food and drink businesses.

One thing to know before booking is access. The archery areas upstairs are reached only by stairs and the lift does not work, so the club states plainly that the building is not wheelchair accessible. Harris Academy is the alternative, because its sports hall is wheelchair accessible. It is about ten minutes on foot from Bermondsey Underground station, or two minutes by bus 1 from Elephant & Castle.

A session takes up to 12 people per instructor, though the club says it is often only seven or eight. After a safety briefing you are introduced to the vocabulary, ends and nocks, then you spend the bulk of the time shooting at paper targets with low-poundage recurve bows supplied by the club. The session ends with a lesson in scoring and a mini competition, which is where the friendly rivalry shows.

The sessions are built for adults. The club recommends age 16 and over, and it lets in juniors from age 11 only if an adult is shooting alongside them. Families with children between 8 and 16 are pointed to the Saturday morning junior club at the Downside Centre, booked through juniorarchery.co.uk. Spectators are discouraged, since the club would rather everyone shoot than watch, and some beginners feel self-conscious being observed.

Have-a-Go dates are listed on the website one by one, and the schedule runs through December. Saturday sessions start at 11:30am or 2:15pm, Sunday sessions at 2pm, and one Monday evening session on 21 December starts at 7pm at Harris Academy. Each place costs £29.50. Booking is per place, so a group of friends simply buys as many places as are open on the date.

Refunds and transfers stop one week before the start of the session. For a gift, every course and lesson can be bought as an e-voucher, with vouchers starting at £29.50. If you hold a voucher from another provider, the club asks you to email enquiries@2020archery.co.uk with the voucher number and how many people are coming. The office answers emails on weekdays from 9am to 5pm, and there is no phone number on the site.

Anyone who wants to carry on can book a five-week beginners course for £180, offered on Monday and Wednesday evenings, Saturday mornings and Sunday afternoons. The next evening course starts on Wednesday 21 October 2026 at 7pm at Harris Academy, and a Saturday afternoon intermediate course costs £200. Passing a beginners course, or a coach assessment at the club, is the entry ticket to joining as a shooting member.

Membership is £65 for one year and is separate from Archery GB membership, which costs around £65 a year. A shooting session is £16.50 including equipment, or you can buy credit blocks of 10 sessions for £130 and 20 for £220. Direct debit options are £40 a month for one session a week or £65 a month for unlimited shooting, and members book a target in advance through the website.

2020 Archery began at the start of 2008 and ran its own premises in Islington until September 2010, when it moved south of the river to the London Bridge area. Its client list includes Sony, Citibank and KPMG for corporate events, and it hosts the university archery clubs of Greenwich University and King's College London. Westminster Council's youth programme and the Bridge Academy in Hammersmith also use it.

The instructors are a mix of long-serving coaches. Cliff came to archery when his young child took it up at a local club. Corrinne joined as a member in 2015 and became an instructor in 2022, mostly teaching the Saturday beginners course. Richard joined in 2018 as a member and shoots barebow. Between them they hold Archery GB Level 1 and Level 2 awards, first aid training and specialist coaching qualifications.

Groups of 10 to 42 can book an exclusive Target Archery Event at either venue, with packages starting from £37 per person. The club also runs Archery Tag, a combat-archery game with patented safe arrows, which suits stag and hen parties and office days. Exclusive events cost more than buying places on a scheduled Have-a-Go, since an instructor is committed to your group alone.

Druid Street is a short stroll from Maltby Street and Bermondsey Street, so a pre-session coffee or post-session pint is easy to arrange. For a longer outing, walk west along the railway to Borough Market and the riverside beneath London Bridge. Tower Bridge lies to the east along the river, and the Shard looms over the whole route, which makes finding your way back to the station simple.

Downside Centre: Coxson Place, Druid Street, London SE1 2EZ. Harris Academy: 55 Southwark Park Road, London SE16 3TZ. Email: enquiries@2020archery.co.uk. Have-a-Go £29.50, beginners course £180, club shooting fee £16.50. Prices, dates and the schedule come from the club's own pages at 2020archery.co.uk, including its Have-a-Go, Opening Times and Find Us pages. Your confirmation email tells you which of the two venues your date uses.

The club supplies bows, arrows and insurance, so you bring only yourself. Check the venue named in your confirmation email, since weekend sessions are at the Downside Centre and evenings at Harris Academy. If you want help planning dinner or a river walk around your slot, ask the Karpo APP for options nearby and build the afternoon around your shooting time.