Where Adults Come To Play

Adults get the chance to act like kids again while diving onto a massive ball pit and getting drunk.

A black façade in Dalston marked with only a spray painted hashtag and a small net of balls hanging above it houses one of London’s most original pop ups: BallieBallerson. The bar is easily missed but once you step inside it’s hard to forget.

Walls covered in trippy, glow in the dark graffiti lead all the way from the bar down to a room filled with more than 200,000 plastic balls. A lot of time and effort has gone into reshaping the venue. When BallieBallerson first moved in, the bar was run down and not in a great shape. Now, it looks like a club at every hour of the day with a bar and tables stacked with red solo cups and party snacks.

Staff member Gervais Thompson, 28, explains why there is such a great atmosphere and what makes it such a fun working environment. “People come in as strangers, they don’t know each other and we sit them down on tables next to each other and they leave as friends. We have people who come in as strangers and afterwards they go out on a night out together.”

The brunch, which costs £35 includes spaghetti meatballs followed by pancakes and unlimited prosecco, rum punch and cranberry vodka. Brunches are available for two hour slots from 12-2pm or 3pm-5pm. From 6pm onwards the bar opens up and entry tickets cost £15.

After spending some time down in the ball pit, Victor Wu, 27, explained why he came along to the pop up, “It’s a massive ball pit and there’s food and alcohol. It just sounded like a good time out and it turned out to be exactly that. It’s just an excuse to be a bit silly isn’t it? Just having some fun on our day off.”

Customers range from groups of friends out day drinking to hen parties who show up already slightly tipsy. Yet, the atmosphere is extremely relaxed and friendly. “Funnily enough this is probably one of the only places I’ve been at where I never see any trouble. We have a great staff team which is a massive help. It’s all friendly fun, I mean people tend to throw balls at each other and stuff but it’s all light hearted at the end of the day,” says Thompson.

Founded and managed by siblings Wenny and George Armstrong, the pop up opened in November and will stay in Dalston till the end of May. When the Dalston venue closes the pop up will move to another area in London. The new venue is yet to be announced but according to Thompson it will be on a much bigger scale. The new venue will open in time for summer and will have a roof terrace to soak up the sunshine with a nice cold drink.

Check out http://www.ballieballerson.com/ to book a brunch.