Village Games London Puzzle Meet-Up

Hello all!

Here's another one of my puzzle related rambling posts, but I think it is definitely worth a mention. Especially for you fellow puzzlers here in the UK.

Thanks to Brian Pletcher I recently heard about a puzzle gathering that occurs on the first Wednesday of every month at the Lockside Lounge in Camden Town (London), and as I had never been to a puzzle related gathering before I decided that I would really like to go and see what it's like.

I believe that the puzzle meet-up is arranged by Ray and Barbara of Village Games, which is an amazing little puzzle shop hidden away in the chaos that is London's Camden Town, their address can be found HERE.

The shop itself is really tiny, but I could not believe the amount of great puzzles that were crammed into every corner! In fact I was a little bit overwhelmed when I first went in as I hadn't ever been into a puzzle shop with such variety before. Some of the puzzles included the Aluminium Cylinder by Wil Strijbos, loads of Hanayama Cast Puzzles, some puzzles by Constantin and several puzzles by Vinco. I left after buying a couple of Vinco's wooden puzzle cubes and the Cast Amour, all of which I will review here later on.

When I first visited the shop in the early afternoon (I was in London all day with my other half) Barbara was there running the shop. She was very happy to answer any of my questions, and she really knew what she was talking about. It was really nice to talk to someone who had a real interest in the items that they were selling. She made us feel very welcome there, we got to try out a few of the puzzles and I cannot wait to go back and see what other things I can find to add to my collection.

Later in the evening (19:30) we headed over to the Lockside Lounge for the meet-up. There we probably around 20 or so people there, and although this was our first visit they were extremely welcoming! It was a very informal setting, we just pulled up a chair and started chatting with some of the regular visitors. Everyone was chatting, having a drink and passing around some puzzles that they either brought with them or bought on that day from Village Games. I had the opportunity to try out some puzzles like the Karakuri Acorn Box, Cast H&H, Mindjewel and many others.

I had a really great time, and rather surprisingly so did my girlfriend who isn't particularly into puzzles. So I'm really looking forward to attending some of the meet-ups there in the future. Hopefully I may even meet some of you there!

Soon I'll be writing about the next puzzle gathering that I'm attending on Saturday (05/02/11) which has been arranged by the guys over on the Revomaze Forum, so hopefully I'll have a load more interesting puzzles to tell you about when I return!


Oli