Holborn Bowling Alley With £10 Monday Games: All Star Lanes

All Star Lanes Holborn has only four bowling lanes, and on Monday every adult game costs £10 all day. The venue sits inside Victoria House, Bloomsbury Place, London WC1B 4DA, a five to six minute walk from Holborn station on the Central and Piccadilly lines. It opened in 2006 as the first All Star Lanes, so if you are hunting for a bowling alley near me in central London, this is the original small-room version rather than a mall hangar.

The chain's own description of Holborn is four retro lanes, classic arcade games, a 90-cover restaurant and a low-lit speakeasy cocktail bar. That ratio matters. With 90 seats in the dining room and only four lanes, the bowling is the scarce thing here, not the food. The booking system reflects it: advance lane bookings carry a food or drink minimum, so plan the visit as dinner plus a game rather than a quick bowl.

Since 2006 the brand has grown to four London sites, with Brick Lane, Westfield White City and Westfield Stratford following Holborn. The newer branches are bigger and louder. Holborn is the one where the lanes feel like part of a private members' basement: leather booths at the approach, an American diner menu, and a bar built for people who would rather sit with a Negroni than chase a high score.

Adults are anyone aged 13 and over. An off-peak adult game is £10 and a peak game is £14, while children aged 12 and under pay £9.50 per game at either time. At Holborn, off-peak means all day Monday and until 4pm Tuesday to Thursday. From 4pm Tuesday to Thursday and all day Friday to Sunday, the peak price applies, and peak pricing also runs through half terms, bank holidays and school holidays.

Two games can be cheaper than two singles. Holborn sells 2 games for £15 all day Monday and until 4pm Tuesday to Thursday, 2 games for £22 all day Sunday, and 2 games for £25 from 4pm Tuesday to Thursday and all day Friday and Saturday. Because the doors open at 3pm Monday to Wednesday, the cheapest weekday window outside Monday is a single hour, 3pm to 4pm.

Advance lane bookings come with a minimum spend of £7 per person on food or drink. Bowl-only slots are released just one day ahead, so a pure bowling night has to be booked the day before. One lane holds a maximum of seven players, and the venue reserves ten minutes per person per game. A full lane of seven therefore needs roughly 70 minutes for one game.

The venue asks bowlers to arrive 15 minutes before lane time and holds a lane for only ten minutes after that. Deposits are non-refundable, and cancelling or changing the date inside 72 hours forfeits them. Payment is card, Apple Pay or Google Pay only, with no cash. From 6pm staff check ID for anyone who looks under 25, and if one person in your party cannot show ID, the deposit is not refunded.

Under-18s are allowed in Holborn only until 7pm, and they must be with an adult. That makes this a poor choice for a teenage birthday that starts after school and runs late. White City and Stratford keep under-18s until 8pm, which buys an extra hour. The dog-friendly policy covers Brick Lane and White City only, so leave the dog at home for this branch.

The spring and summer 2026 menu is American comfort food. The Signature Burger is £17: 6oz dry-aged beef with bone marrow whip, mustard mayo, lettuce and pickles, served with fries. The Proper Hamburger is £15.50, buttermilk chicken tenders are £8, and queso fundido with pepperoni crumb and jalapeños is £7.50. If you are sharing across a lane, the 1kg chicken wings at £25 come in BBQ, Buffalo, sriracha maple or sticky Korean glaze.

The Holborn drinks list is where this branch earns its reputation. An Espresso Martini is £10.80, a Negroni is £11.50, and the Baltimore Rye Old Fashioned with Sagamore rye is £13.50. Tequila drinkers choose a base for the margarita list, from Olmeca Blanco at £12 to Casamigos at £14.50. One honest verdict: skip the Knickerbocker Glory at £7.50 if you are bowling a second game, because it arrives tall and slow to finish.

The venue pitches itself at team socials, date nights and family outings, and the booking rules sort the crowd by hour. Before 7pm you will see parents with children on the lanes, since under-18s must leave by then. After 6pm, ID checks begin and the room tilts to after-work groups and couples. Students get 25% off bowling, food and drink as walk-ins on Sunday to Wednesday and Friday, and NHS and Blue Light Card holders bowl for £7 Sunday to Wednesday.

The smart slot is Monday, any time from 3pm, when the £10 game and the £15 two-game deal both apply. Friday and Saturday evenings are the hardest to get, because four lanes disappear quickly. If you walk in and the wait is longer than one game, give up and book a later slot. Bloomsbury Lanes, in the basement of the Tavistock Hotel near Tavistock Square, is a ten minute walk north.

Arrive early and walk the area first. The British Museum on Great Russell Street is free to enter and five minutes west, and its Great Court makes a good meeting point. Sicilian Avenue, the short Edwardian pedestrian arcade just off Southampton Row, has cafes and colonnades worth a look. Russell Square, with its fountains and the café in the gardens, is a calm place to sit before the lane booking.

Address: Victoria House, Bloomsbury Place, London WC1B 4DA. Hours: Mon to Wed 3pm to 11:30pm, Thu 3pm to midnight, Fri 12pm to 1am, Sat 11am to 1am, Sun 11am to 10:30pm. Nearest tube: Holborn, 0.2 miles. Payment is cashless. Lanes take up to seven people, and bookings are made online at allstarlanes.co.uk with a deposit.