XMAS
Saturday 21 November 2026
Seven stops · one line · Holborn to the last train

Boys Christmas
London

VR squad battle, retro arcade cabinets, pit-smoked BBQ, underground stand-up, and a proper pub at each end of the day. Slots and tables booked ahead so nobody queues six-deep at a November Saturday bar.

Sat 21 Nov 2026 6 lads Holborn → Soho → Covent Garden → Leicester Sq 13:30 → last train Home via Paddington & Waterloo

Departures

The day at a glance

Four of the six stops need booking in advance. Everything else is walk-in.

13:30 – 14:40
Pre-meet pintsThe Plough, Museum Street
Walk-in
14:45 – 16:15
Deadwood Origins (VR)Sandbox VR, The Post Building
3:00 slot
16:30 – 18:15
Your call — arcade, tavern or pubsThree options, decide in the group chat
Vote
18:30 – 19:50
The BBQ feastBig Easy, Covent Garden
Table for 6
20:00 – 22:00
Stand-up comedyThe Top Secret Comedy Club
6 tickets
22:15 – 23:30
The casinoThe Hippodrome · bring photo ID
Walk-in
23:30 – late
Nightcap & proper pintsHercules Pillars or Paddington
Walk-in

The line

Stop by stop

Every stop is inside a 12-minute walk of the one before it — no cabs, no tube unless you fancy it.

STOP 01 · 13:30 – 14:40

Pre-meet pints

The Plough on the corner of Museum Street: a burgundy Victorian pub frontage with hanging flower baskets and a gold pub sign
The Plough, Museum Street · photo by Ewan Munro, cropped, CC BY-SA 2.0
The Plough 27 Museum Street, Bloomsbury, WC1A 1LH · 020 7636 7964
Tube
Holborn (Piccadilly & Central) — 5 min walk. Tottenham Court Road is about the same.
Open
Saturdays 11:00 – 00:00
Vibe
Grade II listed corner pub from 1888 — flower baskets out front, upstairs room with big windows over Bloomsbury.
Pints
Greene King house: ordinary pub prices and the full range of lagers.
Plan
Meet off the tube, head upstairs if the ground floor is rammed, then it is a straight walk down Museum Street to the VR.
The pub ↗ Map ↗
Walk-in

Get there for 13:30 — no booking needed for six.

↓  2 min walk · straight down Museum Street
STOP 02 · 14:45 – 16:15

Squad VR combat

Deadwood Origins key art: a squad of armed soldiers back to back in a dark jungle, zombies and a huge snake looming behind them
Deadwood Origins key art · Sandbox VR
Sandbox VR The Post Building, Museum St / High Holborn, WC1A 1PB
The game · locked in

Deadwood Origins

"Every evil has an origin. Journey through the jungle to discover where it all began."

Newest release in Sandbox's Deadwood zombie series — full-body motion capture, haptic vests, six of us free-roaming the same arena. Scores and a highlights reel at the end, so there is a winner.

Walk
2 minutes from The Plough, straight down Museum Street
Slot
Book the 15:00 session — arrive 14:45 for briefing, vests and sensor calibration.
Money
Sandbox list £39–55 a head depending on the slot.
Kit
Headset, haptic vest, body trackers. Wear trainers; you will be moving.
After
Highlights in the exit lounge and a drink from the robotic bartender.
Book the slot ↗ See the game ↗ Map ↗
Pre-book required

One arena, six players, 15:00. Sandbox list this branch as "Covent Garden" — it is the Post Building.

↓  10–12 min walk · which way depends on the vote
STOP 03 · 16:30 – 18:15

Your call

Three ways to fill the gap between the VR and dinner — same slot, same sort of money, very different afternoons. Most votes wins.

Swipe or tap through the three below, then call it in the group chat. Only NQ64 needs booking, so it wants settling by 14 November.

NQ64's neon basement with lit arcade cabinets along one wall and booth seating opposite
Option 1 · Retro arcade

NQ64 Soho

The original plan. Cabinets and consoles in a neon basement off Charing Cross Road — Time Crisis, Mario Kart, Street Fighter — plus pool and darts.

Walk
12 min west, then 10 min back east to dinner
Cost
Free entry, pay per game
Booking
Free booth, needs reserving
Catch
Gaming straight after 90 minutes of VR
The bar ↗ Map ↗
Mr Fogg's Tavern interior: bunting and curiosities hung from the ceiling, a globe, wooden barrels and stools
Option 2 · Victorian oddities

Mr Fogg's Tavern

A gloriously daft Victorian tavern on St Martin's Lane — bunting, taxidermy and a thousand curiosities nailed to the ceiling, gin parlour upstairs. Different, but it is a bar, not a game.

Walk
12 min south, then 6 min to dinner
Cost
Drinks only
Booking
Walk in for six
Catch
The Cockney singalong is Thursdays, so not on the 21st
The tavern ↗ Map ↗
The Lamb and Flag's red frontage down a narrow brick alley off Rose Street
Option 3 · Just pubs

Lamb & Flag, then The Harp

The way you normally do it. One of London's oldest pubs down an alley off Rose Street, then The Harp on Chandos Place for the cask ale. No structure, nobody herding anyone.

Walk
10 min south, both within 5 min of dinner
Cost
Pints only
Booking
None — and none possible
Catch
Both are small and get rammed on a Saturday
Lamb & Flag ↗ The Harp ↗

01 / 03

Decide by 14 Nov

Only NQ64 needs anything booked, so the vote has to land a week out.

↓  6–10 min walk to Maiden Lane · depends on the vote
STOP 04 · 18:30 – 19:50

The BBQ feast

A hand holding up a thick slab of smoked beef brisket with a dark bark and visible smoke ring
Low-and-slow brisket · Big Easy
Big Easy Bar.B.Q & Lobstershack 12 Maiden Ln, Covent Garden, WC2E 7NA · 020 4580 1173
Open
Saturdays 11:30 – 22:30
Vibe
Loud tri-level cellar, live music, pit-smoked meat.
Order
Sharing platters — smoked pork ribs, Texas brisket, wings, cornbread, pitchers of craft beer.
Timing
80 minutes is enough for platters, and comedy doors are 3 minutes away.
Book a table ↗ Menu ↗ Map ↗
Table for 6

Reserve for 18:30 to walk straight in.

↓  3 min walk · Drury Lane
STOP 05 · 20:00 – 22:00

Stand-up, underground

A comedian mid-set on the Top Secret stage, lit against a dark wall with the club's red sign behind
The cellar stage · Top Secret Comedy Club. Their own promo shot — the 21 Nov line-up is announced nearer the date.
The Top Secret Comedy Club 170A Drury Lane, WC2B 5PD
Walk
3 minutes from Big Easy
Vibe
Rated London's best stand-up club — proper circuit line-ups and the odd surprise drop-in.
Money
Tickets £10–15. Cellar bar pints and bottles £4–5 — among the cheapest in central London.
Note
Check the listing before booking: Saturday shows run at Drury Lane, and the bill is published close to the date.
Get 6 tickets ↗ Map ↗
6 tickets

Book the 20:00 show on Sat 21 Nov.

↓  Spill out at 22:00 · 9 min walk to Leicester Square
STOP 06 · 22:15 – 23:30

The Hippodrome

The Hippodrome's main gaming floor: roulette tables under chrome chandeliers, red patterned carpet and the Heliot Steak House balcony above
The main floor · the Hippodrome's own photo

A grand Victorian theatre off Leicester Square that became a casino. Three floors of tables, free to walk into and open round the clock — so it takes six blokes at 22:15 on a Saturday without a booking, a table or a plan.

Walk
9 minutes from the comedy club
Where
Cranbourn Street, Leicester Square, WC2H 7JH
Entry
Free, and no membership — walk straight in. Open 24 hours.
Bring
Photo ID. Over-18s only and they card anyone who looks under 25. This is the one thing that can stop you at the door.
Dress
No set dress code — smart casual is what most people wear. The trainers you wore for the VR are fine.
Tables
Roulette, blackjack and baccarat, plus poker and a floor of machines if nobody fancies sitting down at a table.
Drinks
Several bars inside — Permission Lounge, Archive & Myth, Paddy's Sportsbook and a rooftop. Nobody has to gamble to drink here.
Before you go ↗ The casino ↗ Map ↗
Walk-in

Worth agreeing a limit on the way in. It is open 24 hours, which is precisely why that is worth saying out loud.

↓  10 min back east — or stay put, the bars inside run all night
STOP 07 · 23:30 – LATE

Proper pints & the nightcap

The Hercules Pillars bar room: a long wooden bar, a wide central column, bunting and warm filament lighting
The bar at the Hercules Pillars · the pub's own photo

Two ways to finish — three, if you count staying exactly where you are, because the Hippodrome's own bars run all night.

Option A · in town

The Hercules Pillars

18 Great Queen St, WC2B 5DG. Traditional boozer, open to 01:00 on Saturdays, ten minutes back east from the casino. Unpretentious pints, no queue for a cocktail nobody ordered. Worth a ring on 020 7242 2218 nearer the day.

The pub ↗ Map ↗
Option B · at the station

Mad Bishop & Bear

Upstairs inside the Paddington concourse — or the Pride of Paddington on Craven Rd. Relaxed drinking right up to departure, which is the safe choice if the last fast train matters. Ascot and Wokingham go from Waterloo instead, and the 23:48 is the last one — see below.

Map ↗
Walk-in

Decide on the night.

Getting home

Two stations, two last trains

The group parts company at the end of the night. Slough and Burnham go west from Paddington and can stay out as late as they like. Ascot and Wokingham go from Waterloo, and the last one is 23:48 — the single most important time on this page.

From Paddington

Slough & Burnham

ServiceAll night
Elizabeth line
Runs through the night at weekends between Paddington and Reading via Slough and Burnham — typically every 30 mins late on.
GWR fast
Fast regional services Paddington → Slough until roughly 00:30–01:30, then a gap until the early-morning restart. Burnham is Elizabeth line only.
Tube link
Holborn / Covent Garden → Paddington, 15–20 mins. Leave the pub with a margin if you want the GWR fast rather than the all-stops.
From Waterloo

Ascot & Wokingham

Last train23:48
One train, both stops
The South Western stopper from Waterloo to Reading serves Ascot, then Bracknell, then Wokingham — so nobody changes. Departures at :18 and :48 past the hour. Ascot 54 mins, Wokingham 1h 08.
The last one
23:48 off Waterloo — Ascot 00:41, Wokingham 00:55. There is nothing behind it until the morning, so this is a hard stop, not a guideline.
So leave by
The casino helps here: Leicester Square is on its doorstep and Waterloo is three stops down the Northern line, about 15 mins door to door — so leave the Hippodrome by 23:30. If you have walked back to the Hercules Pillars instead, make it 23:25.
Via Reading?
No later, and worse. The last Reading connection is 23:52 (Wokingham 00:01, Ascot 00:15), which means being off Paddington by about 23:15. The all-night Elizabeth line only helps Slough and Burnham — reach Reading after midnight and it is a taxi.
Worth checking
The Reading–Ascot stretch picks up weekend engineering work fairly often. Worth a look at the SWR live page a day or two before.
TfL journey planner ↗ GWR live times ↗ SWR live times ↗

Before the day

Five things before the day

Four bookings for Saturday 21 November, and one thing to put in your pocket. Tick them off as they are done — saved in this browser.

Photographs belong to the venues and are used here to show the lads where they are going: Sandbox VR (Deadwood Origins key art), NQ64, Mr Fogg's Tavern, Big Easy, The Top Secret Comedy Club, the Hippodrome Casino and the Hercules Pillars. The Plough and the Lamb & Flag are by Ewan Munro via Wikimedia Commons, cropped here, used under CC BY-SA 2.0.