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It’s a testament to the endless iconographic appeal of Steven Knight’s Brummie gangland drama that Peaky Blinders: Underworld isn’t even the first immersive Peaky Blinders experience to run in London – that honour went to Peaky Blinders: The Rise, a show so awful I prayed the Shelby gang would drag me out of it and shoot me dead.
Peaky Blinders: Underworld is a very different, greatly improved kettle of fish which doesn’t even use the word ‘immersive’ in its marketing, although to all intents and purposes that’s what it is. (To be clear, it’s made by completely different people, being attributed to the rather inscrutable ‘KMJ Entertainment in partnership with Banijay Rights’).
Made with the blessing of show creator Steven Knight what’s unusual is the fact that Underworld is divided into two sections, one of which is free. Or free-ish: it’s a pub. You don’t have to pay entry to be admitted to The Garrison, which is nominally a recreation of the Victorian boozer that serves as the Shelby gang’s HQ in the show. But to be clear, the pints are very definitely not 1920s prices (that would be about 2p a go).
Built into the London Bridge arches in what I believe is the old location of Southwark Playhouse, I found The Garrison a slightly weird concept: you can’t faithfully magic up an historic pub just like that. It is ultimately a Peaky Blinders theme pub. Still, I wouldn’t rule out a casual pint here if I was in the area: it’s spacious, the period details are clearly faux but for the most part atmospheric rather than tacky (wooden boards, wooden bar, proper barstool, costumed barstaff), and it happily continues the show’s anachronistic music policy with Nick Cave et al on the jukebox and live bands playing several nights a week. There’s also the odd actor barking at us in an enjoyably flinty Brummie accent, although you won’t really get any story in this bit.
The question, then, is whether or not to step into the Underworld, which is the immersive experience behind the pub. Presumably most punters will in fact have prepaid, but I’d assume it’s possible that after a few pints a casual Garrison punter might find themselves spontaneously signing up for the experience.
The pints are very definitely not 1920s prices
Behind the doors, then, is a polished immersive walkthrough area that boils the Birmingham of the show down to its lurid highlights: the fairground; Chinatown; the bookies; the tattoo parlour that is also a bar – that sort of thing. I was given what I’m going to call an activity book upon entry, which has little tokens that enable you to claim a go on each of the fairground games (hook a duck, that sort of thing), plus you can also take on one (or I think more) of several bigger challenges, though on the opening night the only one available was ‘Catch the Rat’, which as you can probably imagine had little to do with rodent control. Although the task was given to me by another appreciably hard-nosed, hard-accented Blinders gang member, the actual job required following clues and solving puzzles in a way that presumably has little bearing on how one actually catches a rat. No rats were harmed in the making of this show. It’s gentle puzzle solving, basically, though the good news is I won a drinks voucher for completing it (I’m not clear if every winner does so).
I think the key things to bear in mind here are that one, the Underworld isn’t particularly massive – you can’t lose yourself in it like a Punchdrunk show – and two, you’re not really getting a great story, just a fairly standard immersive theatre/escape room-style puzzle chain. But it goes about it in a very fun, very atmospheric, very nicely designed way, and if you love that Blinders iconography via the medium of a well-crafted immersive set with some modest lateral thinking thrown in, then it should do it for you. Tickets are around £25 for a one-hour timeslot - some might consider that a bit steep for pottering around a few rooms, but if you get into the quest and are game for the games you’ll have a diverting time (and the prospect of winning a drink takes the edge off the price a bit).
The dirty secret is that obviously nobody – well, almost nobody – really wants to go back to 1920s Birmingham to work for a criminal gang and that is not what Underworld is offering. It’s an opportunity to sink a few tankards, play a few games and be barked at by some impassive Brummie gangsters. If that’s your idea of a good day out then you’ve just found your new favourite London destination.
Peaky Blinders: Underworld is at the London Bridge Arches, just off Tooley St.
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