A retro bowling alley in a former job centre which doubles up as a bar, club, live music venue, diner and cinema. If that’s not enough, there is also a private karaoke room. Oh, and there’s a backpackers hostel upstairs. It can only be The Lanes, one of the coolest places in Bristol.
The Lanes is as far removed from traditional bowling alleys next to out-of-town cinema multiplexes as it is possible to get, but bowling fans can still enjoy toppling the pins while others enjoy the myriad other opportunities on offer.
One of the best things about The Lanes is its ramshackle charm. On my birthday last year, I came with a group of friends to bowl and one by one, each lane broke, so we were moved on to the next lane and the next, ending up using four out of the five available.
I was also there on the very first night, enjoying both the bowling and the live band, as the downstairs toilets flooded, forcing people to wander through what was then still a building site upstairs.
There were no mishaps this time unfortunately. In fact, my brother and I were the only ones there on a Tuesday afternoon, and the nice girl working even gave us an extra game for free, so I could make it 3-0 to me, not that I’m competitive or anything.
The Lanes is simply lots of fun. They serve great beer – Bitburger, Bernard Pilsner and Meantime London Stout were all on tap and in August there’s going to be a beer festival featuring 50 beers from micro breweries in the US. The whole place has been designed so well – the bar surface is wood from an old bowling alley. There’s a retro clothes shop in one corner. And there’s always something going on from club nights to live music to cinema to live comedy nights.
There’s nothing quite like The Lanes anywhere else. It’s a fantastic place.
The Lanes, 22 Nelson Street. 0117 325 1979.
