London Chess Community (King's Cross) gathers in the Thornhill Arms every Wednesday for a beer, socialising and a game or two of chess. Greater London Chess Club (Bloomsbury) meets on Tuesdays (September to June) — hosting leagues but welcoming all-comers. Metropolitan Chess Club (Liverpool Street) meets on a Thursday, offering free one-to-one coaching for beginners or near-beginners. London Chess Club (Elephant and Castle) is another welcoming club, meeting every Sunday.

I love how bright and colourful the game is and some of the little challenges they have to do when they land on the marmalade mystery card are super fun! It’s one of those simple games that the children can all play peacefully together. With minimal input from me and minimal fall outs from them – winner winner. London Underground was the worlds first metro system constructed in the 19th century. Transporting millions of commuters in and out of London every day, Londoners have a love-hate relationship with the Tube. The same thing can be said about the timeless game of Monopoly, with many remembering dreadfully long gaming sessions in their childhood ending in quarrels and tears. Playing with young kids, you can use “beginner rules” to make the game a bit less complex and easier to understand as you’re only using a bus or taxi to get around London. In the first few rounds, it’s a good idea for the grown-ups to be Mr X, so the kids have time to get confident in how the game works. The board game cafes in this article will all sell you games — and these places are often your best best for more niche and rare titles. The game is all about figuring out the strongest feature of each landmark relative to your opponents’ cards. If you have the best statistic you’ll win all the cards in the round, and if you collect the most cards you’ll become “Top Trump”. As a family game, it works best for primary school-age children that have started to learn numbers and letters. It can be fun for younger kids as well, but they’ll need help reading the statistics on the cards.

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For a more basic spread of board games that will appeal more to beginners, try major toy shops like Hamleys and The Entertainer. There are oodles more chess clubs, including ones in Streatham, Dulwich, Pimlico, Hammersmith, Muswell Hill, Hendon... in fact there are far too many to cram into this article; if none mentioned here are in your area, you can probably Google one that is. Pubs and bars with board games Balham Bowls Club is a cosy place for board games. The Paddington Bear Sightseeing Adventure Game is for 2-4 player and suitable for those aged 6+ although Lottie (aged 4) got on just fine with a little help from me and her sisters. Run through the bustling streets of London. See London’s iconic landmarks and visit Paddington’s home at Windsor Gardens. Bad Moon Cafe (Elephant and Castle): The library of games at Bad Moon is somewhat daintier than at other board games cafes on this list (although it's still got 150 of them — probably more than you've got on the shelves at home). Still, it's a fantastic airy space with amicable staff. Sip a bottle of Kernel and munch on a diavola pizza, while doing your best to destroy your mate at Fury of Dracula. A Wednesday night social at Tanuki Gaming.

Along the way, you’ll collect lots of different costumes, handy boots and mystery boxes to help you conquer challenges. Kids and adults alike will enjoy the different mini-games that can be discovered throughout the game to help them collect even more marmalade and tokens. The girls were recently sent the new Paddington Bear sightseeing adventure board game. Immediately we decided to have a Paddington themed evening. We watched the DVD ate sandwiches (jam though my kids aren’t fans of marmalade) and played out new board game!If you’re a bit of a tube nerd enjoying taking London Underground Quizzes, this is probably a good London board game for you. You’ll be able to build your own vast property empire of tube stations and travel around London on the underground network. The board game has been designed using original colours, fonts and branding making the game feel authentic as you stop at the familiar stations racing towards the top. Another favourite London board game! You have to team up with each other to create a strategy to outwit the person on the run (the dangerous criminal Mr X ). It becomes very strategic and you need to pay attention to the other players as you move through the game. Once you have completed your routes, you can hunt for additional routes. The game ends when you run out of your coloured trains. A great London board game for school-age kids as well as adults that takes about 60-90 minutes to play. After playing this game, our visits to London Transport Museum became even more interesting!

One of London’s most famous fictional characters, Paddington Bear has been loved by generations of children since the first children’s book came out in 1958. With the successful children’s movies Paddington (2014) and Paddington 2 (2017), the fussy little bear has become more popular than ever in recent years.

Similarly, pubs owned by Portobello Brewing Company (they took over much of Antic's stable) offer a shabby-chic environment in which to cosy up with a pint and a game of Scrabble or suchlike. Upgrade boots that help Paddington grab extra tokens, bounce over trouble and make almost any challenge easy. When I was a kid, the trumps cardgames were mostly about cars, planes and tanks. Today you’ll find trumps cards covering all types of topics, and chances are high you’ll find something to match your kids’ interests. We really like the Top Trumps London version because they’re focusing on classic London landmarks and essential facts like when the buildings were constructed and how popular they are in terms of “Global Icon Rating”. Here are some of the landmarks covered by this London cardgame: