There is something rather promising about being approached in a pub by a young Brummie who needs your help with a little job. Before we knew it, my wife, our friend, and I were carrying boxes into a private area of the Garrison, where a man called Billy wanted our help finding a rat. We had come dressed for the occasion, obviously – this was not my first rodeo and if there was Shelby business to be done, I intended to look the part.

We were at Peaky Blinders: Underworld in London Bridge, an experience that combines live performers, missions, and fairground games with a chance to spend some time in the orbit of Birmingham’s most famous fictional criminals. It is a promising combination. And in moments like that introduction, it works. Unfortunately, the rest of our evening never quite delivered on Billy’s invitation.

First, though, the Garrison deserves some credit. This recreation of the series’ pub looks the part, with period detail and one or two costumed characters hanging around, and you can go in without buying a ticket for the experience. The bar staff being in modern clothes slightly punctures the effect, but it is an appealing place to settle in for a drink, especially with a huge portrait of Tommy Shelby watching over us from high up on the wall. There is also a photo booth with themed backgrounds and accessories to create your own portraits, with the pictures sent to you for free. We had little need for the dressing-up props, but we were certainly happy to pose.

Billy, played by the talented and very dashing Jackson Brook, was the real asset. His introduction made what turned out to be the standard mission, handed out in a booklet, feel like something we had personally been recruited to do. Throughout the evening, he kept chatting to us, drawing us into the world, and having a playful flirt with my flirty friend. He also sang a lovely rendition of ‘Danny Boy’ in the pub. But it was his ongoing effort to make us feel involved that stood out most. He gave the evening some of the connection it otherwise lacked.

Beyond the Garrison, your ticket gets you an hour in the Underworld. There is a little Chinatown area, a tattoo parlour offering temporary transfers, a Shelby-style office, and a betting-shop area with a mechanical horse-racing game. Further along, there are vintage fairground games. The setting has a pleasing period feel, although it more suggests the world of the iconic TV show rather than recreating somewhere immediately recognisable from it.

There is fun to be had here. Throwing balls to send your horse racing towards the finish line is an enjoyable little diversion, and I was disproportionately pleased with the vintage-style prizes from the fairground games. I came away with a wooden aeroplane kit from the coconut shy, and a cat’s cradle – a consolation prize after I gave up in frustration at the cork shooting range. Apparently, this is all it takes to distract me from a career in organised crime!

The two missions send you hunting for clues around the space, with performers on hand to help. We finished both in around 40 minutes, and enjoyed working through them together. Our friend did most of the useful detective work, so the reward of a free drink for solving the first was quite rightly hers.

What I wanted, though, was for those discoveries to lead somewhere more interesting. The missions felt much closer to treasure hunts than involvement in a criminal enterprise. Find the clues, solve the mystery, collect the reward. There is nothing inherently wrong with that, but I wanted more conversations, more encounters, and more sense that completing a task had moved a story along. Billy had already demonstrated how much a bit of personal involvement could add. I wanted that woven through the experience.

It was an exceptionally quiet Tuesday when we visited, with perhaps seven or eight guests in total. That had its advantages: plenty of access to the games and opportunities to chat with the cast. But it also left the place short of atmosphere. More people milling around would undoubtedly have helped it feel alive, although a busier room would not, on its own, have supplied the missing story.

I should acknowledge the Shelby-shaped elephant in the room. In 2023, I visited Immersive Everywhere’s Peaky Blinders: The Rise, loved it, and returned several times. That was a three-hour adventure spent interacting with characters from the series and getting pulled into their unfolding drama. I found the comparison hard to shake, but it is also a comparison between two quite different things.

Underworld offers an hour of themed missions, games, and encounters, with a rather lovely pub to enjoy either side. Come along with friends, spend around £30 on a ticket, and get stuck into what is there, and there is an enjoyable outing to be had. We laughed, solved mysteries, chatted to the performers, and got far too invested in winning little wooden toys. My wish for a deeper story does not cancel any of that out.

The team told us they were taking feedback on board and developing the experience further. I would love to see more of the character interaction that Jackson Brook and a few others brought to our evening, giving the missions a little more life and the cast more opportunities to draw people in. The ingredients are there, and I would be interested to see what they do with them.

For now, go for a playful dip into the world of Peaky Blinders, and there is fun to be had. I might have arrived hoping to become embroiled in the Shelby empire, but a drink, a bit of detective work, and some questionable fairground shooting made for an entertaining evening. And I did win an aeroplane!

Peaky Blinders: Underworld is at Arches London Bridge, currently booking until 3 January 2027.

Book your tickets at peakyblinders.london

Words by Nick Barr

Photography by Peaky Blinders Underworld