THE growth of Lakeside Shopping Centre in West Thurrock as a leisure venue in its own right continues this weekend with the opening of a major new attraction – which includes axe-throwing among the activities offered to visitors.

The Boom Battle Bar group is opening a new state of the art £2 million venue on Friday (July) which will be spread over 15,000 sq ft, featuring an eclectic mix of games including axe throwing, indoor curling, augmented reality darts, crazier golf, giant shuffleboards, beer pong and karaoke.

The adventure bar, which will provide around 50 full time and part time jobs, is all undercover indoors, and will also serve up a range of carefully selected craft beers, cocktails and street food to customers.

The group's chief executive Elliott Shuttleworth said:" We are so pumped to finally be able to open our new flagship site. This build has been a long time coming and we've gone full throttle so ensure the games, the food and the cocktails are 10 out of 10 across the board.

"Boom Battle Bar is the complete, ultimate destination venue."

He added:" Shopping centres don't have the same organic pull they used to- so we are switching it up.

"People are forming new habits and shopping culture has fundamentally shifted to online retail. That's why I believe Boom is so special - competitive socialising is something you're never going to be able to do remotely.

"We've got games that they'll never have played before. We've got fully themed cocktails and we've got tasty street food . We guarantee everyone is going to absolutely love our new site!"