A case in point was our family visit to Camden Market where a new mini-golf complex opened last year in what was formerly African themed restaurant Shaka Zulu.
Located in the heart of the market in Camden Lock Place, Junkyard Golf Club puts the crazy into crazy golf with four imaginative and wackily themed nine-hole courses.
It has totally transformed the underground space, with a bar, toilets, and snack hatch as you enter – before descending more stairs to play.
We started with drinks; cocktails for grown ups, and mocktails for the teens, which included weird and wonderful concoctions presented in garish ways.
Echoing the themes of the courses, there was a Creepy Clown with pink gin, ribena, vanilla cream and sprinkles, and the smoky-flavoured Narco Marg-O which came in a tin mug and mixed Tequila, Del Maguey Puebla, agave, lime and pineapple.
My daughter said the Solero with frozen, vanilla, passion fruit, mango and cream did taste like the ice-cream, while her friend was delighted with the Bubblegum Fizz, mixed up cherry, apple, bubblegum, Ting, topped with gummy sweets and a Fizz Wiz.
We tucked into snacks of loaded nachos with cheese, pickles and salsa before heading downstairs to find our clubs and balls.
One of the most popular is the fairground-themed Bozo with creepy clowns and ferris wheel. There’s also Pablo, a ‘polluted paradise’ complete with volcano and grizzly bears.
But we were here to try ’90s garage scrapyard’ Gary which included lobbing your ball through a derelict minivan and seeing it pop out through the exhaust pipe.
There was also a UV ‘rave room’ where you had to compete with flashing strobes as you teed off, and a final hole that involved wanging the ball around a giant tyre.
Things got a little heated as we suspected the teens of cheating, but despite the scorecard, we had to remind ourselves it was supposed to be fun rather than competitive.
A second course Dirk brought us to a ‘basement horror rave’ complete with horrific nightclub urinal, an iron maiden, mirror maze, a bloodstained guillotine and an electric chair.
There was the odd hole where you would chop away racking up a dozen strokes, while at the next one you’d be ecstatically punching the air after a hole in one.
The afternoon flew by, happily we were just about talking to each other as we emerged into Camden Market full of our crazy junkyard adventure.
Junk Yard Golf Club is at 307-308 Camden Lock Place, Camden Town with nine holes starting at £12.50 per person and a family ticket from £25. There are also Sunday to Wednesday offers for Unlimited Golf with 2 cocktails for £20.
