London gamers club shakes off dicey COVID times, forges new path

London gamers club shakes off dicey COVID times forges new

Hooked on games from way back, when he was a little kid, London software engineer Tristan Mitchell always dreamed of owning a gaming venue to cater to people just like himself, his wife said.

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Cribbage, poker, backgammon, chess, euchre – Mitchell’s love of games began early, at age six, when he started learning all the standard board and card games with his father, he says.

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In high school, he was into video and fantasy games like Warhammer. The family home was turned “upside down” every Friday night, when friends would gather to indulge the same gaming passions. “It’s been a life-long thing,” Mitchell said.

Along with his wife, Patience Mitchell, whose final project in business school involved a game club, Mitchell came up with a brainwave: Why not create a real club, a place away from their home where they’d held game nights for years, where people drawn to tabletop games could get together to play and socialize?

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Tristan Mitchell, left, fell in love with games as a kid. His wife Patience Mitchell, right, did her final project in business school on a game club. So it’s no surprise the couple opened Game Knight, a gaming venue, in London. Photograph taken on Tuesday, Nov. 28, 2023. (Mike Hensen/The London Free Press)

With that, they turned their hobby into a business, Game Knight, renting a place in a north London plaza for a membership club equipped with an impressive library of games, big and small tables, a snack bar, comfy chairs and even anti-fantigue mats for players who stand at some games that can go on for hours.

Business boomed, but the couple’s timing was poor. Only five months after they opened on Adelaide Street North, the pandemic struck.

Game Knight Leagues
Game Knight at 38 Adelaide St. North in London opened months before the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March 2020 and struggled with enforced closings and gathering limits. But it’s been a different story since the final lockdown ended, Tristan Mitchell says. (Mike Hensen/The London Free Press)

With its lockdowns and gathering limits, the COVID-19 crisis was like kryptonite to the club, whose main draw is the social experience of getting together with friends for competition, fun and escapism.

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When you’re selling social, enforced closings and gathering limits are a game-changer.

Even after restrictions eased, it was exhausting to keep up with the ever-changing restrictions, said Mitchell.

“It was stressful and took so much to restart every time,” he said. “Things really started to pick back up when the final lockdown ended.”

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Game Knight
The reverse of a periscope is used by players such as Tyler Booth while playing a Second World War skirmish warfare game at Game Knight. Booth says small skirmish games are popular because they can be played with only two players. (Mike Hensen/The London Free Press)

Tough on many businesses, COVID triggered layoffs and forced many entrepreneurs to reinvent themselves, shifting to online or curbside formats. Some, especially small operators, never survived.

Star Wars game
Benjamin Plosaj, left, and Robert John play a Star Wars re-enactment tabletop game at Game Knight. The two meet a couple of times a week at the club to play. (Beatriz Baleeiro/The London Free Press)

But almost four years after COVID struck, Game Knight is still in play, still attracting newcomers and regulars like Robert Johnson, who’s been dropping in at least three times a week since 2021.

“I met some of my closest friends here,” Johnson said.

Benjamin Plosaj, another frequent visitor, said the club helped him adjust to London, where he moved five months ago. “I see familiar faces all the time, and it’s community-driven,” he said.

So, how did Mitchell and his wife manage to keep alive a business with a niche audience, a club he concedes isn’t out to make a huge profit but more to cover its costs?

At first, he turned to online game nights and curbside pickup of board games the club sells to stay afloat.

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But the real challenge for the club – it can hold dozens of people at a time – was getting revenue back after the pandemic, as its economic fallout cascaded. Once people break a habit, many don’t go back.

Last month, Mitchell scrapped the membership fees and now costs are being covered by the club’s retail sales and the snack bar, which has a liquor license and only employs one person.

Some of the popular items at the store are products by Games Workshop – a retailer of fantasy board games that sells miniatures for one of the most played tabletop games, Warhammer 40,000.

The next bestsellers are trading card games like Flesh and Blood, made by Legend Story Studios.

Mitchell said that outside of those items, tabletop games of battles like Conquest – produced by Parabellum Games, a retailer of miniatures for tabletop games – are also some of its top sellers.

“As long as we don’t have to pay out of our personal money (to keep the doors open) we would consider the business to be successful,” he said.

[email protected]

Game Knight

Address

38 Adelaide St. N., Unit 2A

Website

www.gameknightleagues.com

E-mail

[email protected]



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