Balham Bowls Club

A pretty big pub in the heart of Balham, with lots of side rooms, nooks, crannies, oh and a beer garden. But the main event is the entire upstairs: an ex ballroom full of tables and chairs and home to the best pub quiz in London, on a Tuesday night!

We always enjoy going here and more often than not is for that pub quiz. They get such a big, competitive crowd and yet it remains comfortable due to the scale of the venue. I always get a couple of beers and whilst there isn't the largest choice ever, they do seem to rotate a number of draughts - often seasonally so you can get a warming ale in winter, or something more refreshing in summer.

The staff are really friendly and chatty and get through people quickly on busy days. On the one occasion I have visited their beer garden, it was very pleasant being surrounded by plants as well as booze-lovers!

I haven't tried their food yet, so I'll save the extra star, but if it's anything like the rest of the experience it'll be delightful, I am sure!

This place is the bee's absolute knees. Well truthfully it's the BBC, but let's not quibble.

Granted the decor is decades out of date, and there's no ventilation upstairs to the point where we were gasping for air, stripped down to our vests. There were loads of us, though.

Needless to say, all of this is inconsequential, because the place is so unique. I don't know anywhere else like it, and I've been to my fair share of drinking holes.

Far from being a hole, the BBC is large, labyrinth-like and quirky with a distinctly old-school vibe.

Ultimately, it's all about how a place makes you feel, and I always feel right at home here. A Balham gem.

This place is huge. Not large, not "wow, what a spacious spot" but huge. Being as it did used to be an actual bowling club it has rooms off of rooms off of rooms and a sunny garden to boot!

We've been here for drinks and also a few times for the pub quiz. The pub quiz is on Tuesdays upstairs. The upstairs room is clearly a bit past its prime, though I believe they do hire it for weddings, etc. It has the look of a space that was probably quite beautiful in days of yore. Lovely for dancing, I'm sure. Downstairs there's the main bar area with normal pub-type seating, then a large dining room which looks like what the upstairs walls might aspire to with a little love.

Service is always slow - for the size of the place, they really should have more bar staff. But the drinks are cold and there's plenty of seating. Definitely a great Balham spot.

To the uninitiated it looks like an old bowls club, but when you go in it's got a couple of bars and a nice restaurant. Food was pretty good (I had the £20 rib-eye, though friends raved about the shoulder of lamb, which is £3 cheaper).

It's off the high street just left of Waitrose.

Definitely worth eating here.

This place is so big, and they don't seem to mind if you take a dining room table even if you're only having drinks. Or at least nobody stopped us. They have a good selection of beers, including Blue Moon (though I didn't have that, since I'll be back in the US soon enough), and lots of different rooms with different levels of crowdedness. Seems like an early-thirties crowd, perhaps. There's some nice outdoor seating as well. The service was prompt for how busy it was on a Friday evening, friendly, and I'd say reasonably priced.

Had my first experience of the BBC last night and we had a lot of fun!

Having played a lot of rugby in my time, it felt like i was in some antiquated rugby clubhouse in the arse end of nowhere. It had a distinctly West-country vibe, but maybe I was getting too involved and carried away?

We were surrounded by a relaxed and, at 11pm on a Saturday, very inebriated clientele all having fun.

Yes the toilets could do with a makeover and perhaps the staff could be a little more interested in quicker service than having fun amongst themselves but that's just silly gripes.

I was also very happy to find Tusker beer behind the bar, reminding of me some fun times gone by in Africa.

I'll be back on a Sunday next as I suspect this would be a great place to chill out with the paper and some recovery beers.

A lovely looking pub. You can see why it is so popular locally.

The first time I visited the beer range was a little bit disappointing, the choices common and predictable. 2nd time I dropped by I was pleased to find a couple of beers I had never seen before. I went for Neolithic from the Caveman brewery and it was very nice!

I do like Antic pubs, so was pleased to finally be able to drop by Balham Bowls Club. While it lived up to my expectations in some areas, in others, such as the food and beer availability, I was somewhat disappointed.

Any lingering uncertainties over whether I'd found the right place were quickly dispelled by the sight of pushchairs, parents and children enjoying the sun in the beer garden. The tunes were '90s classics - You Got the Love being one of the memorable ones. The interior is a predictable if pleasing mix of battered country home and wooden tables and chairs.

The beer, however, was disappointing. Antic's better pubs (e.g. the Jam Circus in Brockley) have embraced the craft beer revolution and have interesting, locally-sourced beer on their taps. Here.. not so much. There was a nice cider that my girlfriend went for, but otherwise about the most interesting thing I could find was a Steph Weiss, which turned out to be possibly the least exciting wheat beer I've ever tasted. The food on the bar menu was better - a tasty sausage roll for £1.50 and a generous pile of pitta bread, dips, rocket good value at £7. We wondered if we might stay for dinner.. until we discovered that they don't serve main meals! Wow. So off we went.

The bar food, free wifi and music are great. But Balham Bowls Club would be better if they took a leaf out of the book of other Antic pubs when it comes to food and beer.

I love this place. It is such a cool and quirky bar and anything goes here. You cannot help but feel at home. It has got a great outdoor area at the back, although no heaters which is not so good in winter. It has heaps of space and there are loads of little corners to hide away. There are big comfy sofas to curl up in and it has masses of ecclectic charm. The vibe here is welcoming and my friends who had travelled up from Bristol were full of praise on how friendly everyone in the bar was, which certainly counteracts the view some people have of us London folk!

The food here is great too. We had Sunday lunch here on Sunday and it was fantastic. The pork belly was melt in the mouth and the roast potatoes cooked in duck fat were seriously moreish. The only negative was the vegetarian option, which was frankly a pathetic effort. My friend, a vegetarian, ordered the vegetable loaf and it was embarrasing to see what she received - a couple carrots and some other random veg squashed together. She was left hungry and it is for this reason I am deducting a point. However the dessert was delectable and this went a long way in redeeming the vegetarian failure!

The staff here are really good as well - very friendly and helpful. If you are eating here, partiularly for Sunday lunch you will need to book. It is a big room with plenty of space but this is really popular for good reason and fills up really quickly.

This is my favourite bar in Balham and well worth a visit if you are in the area, unless of course you are a vegetarian;)!

This place is cool.

Yup, its chilled, quirky decore, cool background music, plenty of rooms and fun spaces including a restaurant bit out back.

Its got a good range of alco-mahol and is just an all over-cool place to go/be/hangout.

It also has bunting inside. I have bunting in my living room, so I'm a fan of that year round naff British street party decoration.

Good place for the trendy sorts to pass some time in Balham.