The first of many to come, Bounce Holborn is promising to become a landmark of ping pong and good times. London’s latest non-conventional hotspot – reinventing the sports bar – takes cue from the story of ping pong.
The game was founded in 1795, Jaques – the oldest sports and games makers in the world, created some of the finest indoor and outdoor British family games including: Croquet, Snakes and Ladders, The Staunton Chess Set and Tiddledy winks, to name but a few. In 1891 John Jaques II invented Gossima – a game made for the dining room, born from the frustration of tennis surpassing croquet at the then Wimbledon Croquet club. This game was essentially indoor ping pong, but it proved unpopular with UK audiences. Ping Pong was the very start of table tennis as we know it today, and all created on the very same site on which Bounce sits.
Bounce is verifiably located on the very same site on which the game of ‘ping pong’ was first created and patented in 1901. In 1901, John Jaques III re-launched Gossima as Ping Pong at Hamleys and the game became a huge overnight success.
Bounce does not just focus on the game – they also serve food, ranging from plates of salami-laden focaccia pizza, to slow-cooked meatballs, to wild ‘shrooms doused in truffle oil. To get you non-sportingly smashed, the 40ft bar provides originals like the imposing Tipping Point, bringing together vodka, gin, rum, tequila, absinthe, maraschino, and lemonade — or, order the Match Point, which is the same cocktail, except Jonathan Rhys Meyers’ smouldering eyes bore into you while you drink it. Other alcoholic contenders include the refreshing Blue Moon & gin De Beer, and the rum/ port/ raspberry vinegar The Shrubbery.
121 Holborn / EC1N 2TD
Now soft-open / 020 3657 6525 / reservations@bouncelondon.co.uk
