Axe-throwing bar gets permission to open in Oxford

One member of Oxford City Council’s licensing panel even said they were ‘rather horrified’ by the idea of people smuggling axes out of the establishment, called Boom Battle Bar, which will open in the city’s Castle Quarter.

The 250-capacity bar will host a series of other games alongside Bavarian axe-throwing, including crazy golf, and beer pong, which led to police concerns it would increase demand on their weekend work in Oxford.

When the licensing subcommittee met on Tuesday night, it heard that AGD Four Ltd, the company behind Boom Battle Bar, wanted a licence to sell alcohol and soft drinks and to play loud music from 11am until 11pm every night of the week.

ALSO READ: East-West railway 'should be electric not diesel'

Marcus Lavell, a lawyer speaking on behalf of the company, said selling alcohol was a ‘secondary element’ of the business.

He added: “This is a product that attracts people to the location not to drink but to engage in the unique gaming experiences that are there.”

But committee member Mike Gotch had concerns about where the axe throwing would take place, and asked how security staff would prevent people smuggling blades out of the premises.

He said: “I read the police evidence that maybe people are going to be tested and checked on the way out to make sure they don’t have axes in their pockets, which rather horrified me.”

Oxford’s Castle Quarter next to the Westgate Shopping Centre. Picture: Ed Nix.

Elliot Shuttleworth, the CEO and founder of Boom Battle Bar, said axe-throwing would be confined to a supervised ground floor area, which patrons would need to be escorted into after booking to use it, and all axes were stored in lockboxes.

He added: “Just in terms of someone walking out with an axe, it would simply be impossible to happen.”

There was also concern from committee member Liz Wade about how some of the proposed games could become drinking games, including beer pong.

However, the company’s representatives assured the committee calling it beer pong was ‘vernacular’ and while it resembled the drinking game, with the use of American Red Solo plastic cups, players could not use beer in the authorised version.

Alan Cook, the company's head of UK operations, added that the target audience did not even drink that often and spent most of their cash in the bar on games.

He said: “The new kids on the block – attracting the under 35s – they don’t drink anymore. They don’t want to sit in the pub, drink two pints of bitter, eat nuts and chat about the atrocious state of politics.

“They want to drink J2O which is our fifth biggest selling drink, play our games, and leave the venue.”

ALSO READ: Thame murder trial continues at Oxford Crown Court

But Thames Valley Police said the new venue would add to its workload in Oxford city centre, which was already considerable on weekends.

James Sullivan, speaking on behalf of the police, asked for the council to turn down the licence application, or to impose extra restrictions on the bar if the committee wouldn’t agree to this – including making bouncers wear hi-vis jackets and body cams, and requiring all games bookings stop at 9pm.

Mr Sullivan said that before Covid, weekend drinking in Oxford created ‘massive demand for Thames Valley but also on our partner agencies as well, in particular the NHS’.

He added: “Another venue will only bring in more patrons to the city centre.”

Oxford Town Hall, the HQ of the city council. Picture: Ed Nix.

However, when asked for evidence of how the bar would add to policing work, he could not provide any.

The bar’s backers also said that the two empty buildings where it would operate still had existing licences for a café and Chinese restaurant that had closed down, arguing that the new licence would not add an additional premises to the city centre.

ALSO READ: Gender pay gap at Oxfordshire County Council revealed

The licensing subcommittee approved the application, with the conditions that bouncers should wear hi-vis jackets and body cams, but did not agree with police that games booking should stop at 9pm.

Instead, they will stop at 10pm, as they agreed any earlier would be commercially unviable.

There are already Boom Battle Bars open in Cardiff and Norwich, and similar ventures are being launched in Liverpool, Eastbourne, Leeds and Manchester.

Keep up to date with all the latest news on our website, or follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

For news updates straight to your inbox, sign up to our newsletter here.

Have you got a story for us? Contact our newsdesk on news@nqo.com or 01865 425 445.