London: central restaurant/ activity for family get-together with young adults

[Bouffe]

I have five nieces, nephews and more distant young relatives living in London at the moment. I'm going to be spending a long weekend there in February. I'm in my late 50s, they are in their early-mid 20s. I don't see them from one year to the next, so I'm planning to invite them to meet me for lunch and then we'll go on to something in the afternoon. I'll pay for lunch/ dinner/ drinks and cost of the activity, but there'll have to be a ceiling of around £100 per head.

I'm wondering about a Hamilton matinee: that's at the Victoria Palace in Victoria, which isn't an area I know well. Anyone done anything similar? What's worked, what hasn't? If you know Victoria, can you think of somewhere nice to eat?

I wouldn't go to the theatre with people I rarely see, surely you want to be able to talk to them not sit in silence for 2.5 houts?

At that age I'd be looking at something like junkyard golf, or one of those fun darts places where you can get food and drinks.
I agree a theatre show isn't great for a family catch up.

I agree with noisyfrodge. What about something like crazy golf?

https://swingers.club/uk/book-now

Yes Flight Club for darts. You can book a session with drinks and bottomless pizza

We'll have an hour or two to talk at lunch, but I have no idea if they'll get on or have much to talk about. There's an Australian and an American who are here for a year or two but have not yet reached out to contact their cousins living in the London area. I'd also rather they went home with something to remember — the time they saw Hamilton, for example — than the time I coerced them to spend a tedious afternoon making smalltalk.

I want to give them an opportunity to get to know each other as well as me catching up with them. If they want to stay in touch afterwards that's great. If it goes well then they can go off to a bar together after the theatre.

Crazy golf is a thought, but surely they can do that any weekend they want with their mates — potentially much more fun than with me. And anyway, it's one of the last things I'd want to do on a trip to London.

£100 a head will only get you the cheap seats at Hamilton if you want to cover a meal and drinks too.

If that’s what you want to do I suggest you look at the restaurants in Nova - practically next door to the theatre and lots of choice

https://createvictoria.com/nova

I’d also suggest something like crazy golf or an escape room could work well - we often do them as team building activities at work mixed age groups.

It's not crazy golf with mini windmills etc.

My 22 yo went to a Puttshack recently and had a great time. It was with a mixed group of people - some he knew and others he didn't, but it gave them all a chance to mix without having to sit next to someone etc.

Mini Golf Like You've Never Seen Before ¦ Puttshack ¦ Crazy Golf London and Essex

If they live in London already, I'd ask them for ideas. They probably just want a free nice lunch, you could always go for a walk or another drink afterwards if people are getting on well. I'd go for a pub in an interesting area like Greenwich or Hampstead. I wouldn't over manage it with activities.
Tbf most people who want to see Hamilton have probably seen it already.

The Palm House Bar , opposite the theatre, is lovely, nice lively slightly funky atmosphere, they do good cocktails, other drinks, interesting small plates for sharing so might be good place for a meet up before the theatre if you decided not to do a meal for everyone.

One strange thing, they don’t accept tips!

Have you thought about Covent Garden, so many lovely places to eat, will be very festive and places to have a drink after the lunch. If you were taking me i would not want to spend hours in the theatre, but lunch a wander and a drink to end would be perfect.

How about an immersive theatre / dining experience like Murder Express?

Or lunch plus Frameless (immersive art experience)?

(sorry I was going to post links for you but mumsnet is being difficult).

How about the Twist Museum on Oxford Street which is full of optical illusions?

Thanks, that sounds ideal. I'm not fixed on Hamilton (never seen it myself) but I've never heard anyone say a bad word about it, so it seemed like something upbeat to do on a dank February afternoon. It's the kind of thing that people don't seem to mind seeing twice.

Yes, we could go to Covent Garden, but I've met up with nieces and nephew before now and just wandered around and it's felt aimless and underwhelming. They live in London, they can go shopping any time.

Frameless may be a good idea: I guess having lived and worked in central London for 30 years I think of things like that as tourist traps. How long would you spend there? My concern would be that if things hadn't really taken off over lunch we'd be spending another hour or two going around Frameless, possibly with me having to work really hard to keep conversation going/ people engaged. They're from quite different backgrounds and working in quite different spheres, so there's no guarantee that they'll gel. I'd just like to give them the chance to.

I'll check it out but having had a cursory look it seems just like another tourist trap. This is firming me up a bit: I think I'd definitely prefer something cultural or artistic with them. They can do the tourist stuff themselves if they choose.

Is the £100 per head for meal / drinks and activity? You're not going to get anywhere near that with tickets for Hamilton.

I've just looked at a couple of random weekends in February and there aren't any tickets available anyway.

If they live in London they will probably have done most things anyway? What about Lift 109 at Battersea Power Station and then food / drinks afterwards.

You seem very resistant to other people's ideas!

You obviously know your nieces and nephews, but having got my own 20-somethings, if they were having to get together with other family members that they didn't really know, they'd prefer it to be in a relaxed, fun atmosphere, not an art gallery.

I'm going to have to agree that something like an escape room or a murder mystery walk is probably going to go down better than something more formally artsy for most 20 something's.

If they don't live in London I wouldn't get to hung up on something being a tourist trap because they are going to be tourists.
If they do then they might not have done the more touristy stuff anyway.

The battersea power station is a good shout out teens enjoyed it when we did a trip to London to stay with family and sort visas.

Crystal Maze in Shaftesbury Avenue is great fun and good for some 90s nostalgia
https://the-crystal-maze.com/london/

Just checked: matinee tickets for Hamilton on the Saturday in February that I'm going to be there seem to be available for less than £50, so that should leave £50pp for lunch which is doable. I'm really not as fixed on it as I sound but I'd rather give my money to the arts — encouraging talent, giving work to creative people. You can go to an escape room or play crazy golf or go go-karting anywhere, but very few cities offer such access to world class art or theatre or music.

Hamilton is great. Have a look at Guys & Dolls at Bridge theatre and book standing immersive tickets (40). Plenty of restaurants near the bridge theatre eg Ivy chain. Cool location too by river, London Bridge and opp the Tower of London.

I would maybe offer the group a choice of Hamilton or something more informal and check which they would prefer?
My teens are having a compulsory school trip to Hamilton, one is looking forward to it and the other is dreading it. I would say their friends are split.
Your slightly older group may all be arty but it might be worth checking first if you aren't sure. As I'm thinking it is important that they enjoy it. You can always donate money to an arts cause separately if you would like.

Oooh, Guys & Dolls is my favourite musical. I'm not a massive musical fan but it's total class. Thank you, I'll check that out.

I was just talking to a friend about posting here and how out of step I seem to be with popular opinion. She knows some of the background to my relationship with some of these young people. Her take on it is that now they're all adults I'm approaching them as adults and not as children who have to be pleased. I'm saying 'I'm going to be having lunch and going to XXXX and I'm inviting you all to join me. My shout.' And if it doesn't appeal then they don't have to come. She's right: I don't feel the need to please them. If they don't appreciate the opportunity to try something they haven't done before and connect with each other, that's fine.

Fair enough. Your previous posts seemed to be about wanting to get young members of your family together, some if whom didn't really know each other, and helping them all get to know each other and you better, hence my suggestions.
If it's actually Auntie bestowing culture on them that's different.

I'm a little curious about how rigid your thinking is about this OP.
You can absolutely create any opportunity you want and don't have to please anyone.
But why go to the effort of creating the opportunity if you aren't looking to please people regardless of their age?

They may absolutely love the idea of Hamilton it is a good idea for certain groups of people, I would enjoy it. But why not offer people a couple of options so everyone is getting the most out of the opportunity that you are kindly offering.