It’s been some time since Urban Golf was played on its streets, courtesy of the imagination and organisation of the late Jeremy Feakes, but plans are afoot for a return of golf to Shoreditch.
Construction began on 1 November 2009 of a golf range known as the City Limits Golf Driving Range and Academy. Access to the range is from Worship Street, close to Liverpool Street Station, just outside the City of London. An area of Shoreditch that recently featured in the news, when firefighters fought the blaze that gutted Sosho and the East Room on nearby Tabernacle Street.
On a recent visit to the site on 18 March 2010, it seemed that the golf range had yet to open for business. If it does open, it will only be for a temporary period as a condition of the planning permission. Several other businesses operate similarly temporary operations on the site, including the Real Fight Club Gymnasium and a several 5-a-side football pitches.
As a company called Accomplish Management Ltd hired to sell advertising opportunities on behalf of the owners of the venture has been offering sponsorship opportunities between 2 October 2009 and 2 October 2010 related to the golf range, it suggests that the opening has been delayed a few months and that there’s already an end in sight.
The range has 16 bays on two tiers, overlooking a range created of what looks to be astroturf with a netted perimeter. Also on site is a kiosk and what might be a shop. The company operating the range has a website at www.citylimitsgolf.com advertising the golf range and lessons provided by a third party, N1 Golf.
Previously owned by Railtrack, the site is currently owned by a developer called Hammerson who in recent years submitted plans for Foster-designed tower blocks on the site in a development known as Bishop’s Place, or ‘the Tombstone’. The development attracted lots of local opposition amid fears of related plans to develop the immediate area and nearby Bishopsgate Goods Yard into a cluster of high rise blocks to rival those around Canary Wharf. Bishop’s Place was granted planning permission in November 2009.
Certainly with the demise of the golf range at King’s Cross and more recently the practice and teaching facilities at Regent’s Park, a golf range so close to the City Centre is sure to find many willing patrons. Watch the website for news of its opening.
City Limits Golf Range and Academy
115 Worship Street
Bishopsgate
London
EC2A 2BA
Telephone: 020 7247 7524
