Morten Andersen is wary of bars that ask you to play games while the football is on. Roxy Ball Room is exactly that, and the surprise is how well it carries a marquee fixture once the pool cues go down.
The venue sits at 33 St Mary Axe, directly beside the Gherkin in the heart of the City of London, a two-minute walk from Aldgate and Liverpool Street. It is part of the Roxy Leisure group and opened here in April 2025, the brand's first London site after a run of northern venues (Roxy Leisure). The pitch is competitive socialising, pool, ping pong, beer pong and shuffleboard, with live sport on the screens around it.
That dual identity is the thing to understand before booking. This is a games bar that screens sport, not a sports bar that happens to have a pool table. The big screens carry the major fixtures and the atmosphere on a derby weekend is loud and young, but the room is built around the tables, so a group set purely on watching should claim a screen-facing booth rather than a game.
The drinks run cocktails, craft lager and drink-and-game bundles rather than a serious beer programme. Pints sit around £6.50 to £7 for the City postcode, cocktails near £11 to £13, and the kitchen sends out pizzas and sharing plates aimed at soaking up a long session. There is no cask line here, which is no surprise for the format; come for the bundle and the buzz, not the beer list.
Who it is for is the City after-work group that wants the football wrapped inside an event. Office teams marking a Friday win, birthday groups, and younger supporters who treat a match as the backdrop to a few frames all suit it. The venue is over-18s only and runs seven days a week from 11am to 2am, which makes it a rare late option for sport in a part of town that empties after dark. For screens-first rooms, our roundup of the best sports bars in London points elsewhere.
Best time to go is a Friday after work or a weekend afternoon with a marquee fixture and a table booked in advance. A derby Saturday is the room at its most charged. Avoid a quiet midweek if sport is your only aim, because the screens carry the games but the energy needs the City crowd to land.
The room is a modern, neon-edged games hall rather than a traditional bar, which is the honest mark for and against it. It is bright, busy and built for groups, with none of the dark-wood character a City pub two streets over would offer. What it does deliver is late hours, a screen on every sightline, and a format that keeps a mixed group entertained through a slow first half.
Booking is close to essential on a fixture weekend, both for a table and for a decent view. Walk-ins can usually find space at the bar early, but the screen-facing booths go first and the room fills fast once the City clocks off. A group wanting to actually watch should request a screen view at booking rather than a game slot, because the two are not the same seat.
Roxy Ball Room St Mary Axe is a games bar first, and this guide rates it as the City's most watchable late-night option for sport with a group rather than a serious supporters' room. It earns its place on hours, screen coverage and a format that suits a crowd, not on its beer. For a wider tour of the capital, start with our London bar guide.
Sources: Roxy Leisure official page; Tripadvisor reviews; The Nudge London.
