When predicting the next sport ‘du jour’ in London, it’s honestly easier just to blindfold yourself and throw a dart at an inspiration board than try and guess yourself. Oh god, I’m giving them ideas.
Last year it was pickleball, then padel, then came the looming threat of spikeball. Luckily, 2024 has been dominated by a far less physically intense, visually embarrassing sport. Boules.
Who could have seen it coming? The sport once beloved by grey-haired, slow-moving, stiff-limbed French men has recently become uber-trendy amongst the London metropolitan elite. Maybe we shouldn’t be that surprised, what with their love of “old man pubs”, working men’s clubs and traditional decor. Hey, even the recent obsession with Guinness has a whiff of old man aspiration to it.
It’s something Isabelle McMahon, 30, discovered by chance, after Lime-biking her way through Kennington with a group of mates. “I went past The Prince of Wales pub in Kennington, it was a gorgeous day,” she recalls, “there was this private square with a bit of gravel in the middle, the cute little pub tucked around the corner, and we realised we’d discovered something cool.
“It was all amazingly dressed people, gorgeous looking guys, really trendy girls. Guinness. Scampi fries. You know the vibe.”
After a few minutes, Isabelle noticed punters appearing outside with little boxes of silver balls, then disappearing into the square. They joined in. “Everyone was having a good time, laughing,” she says. “It’s an easy to play game that you don’t really need to know the rules for and you can play with a big group of people.”
Before this, Isabelle’s main associations with boules were her grandma, a regular player, and “old men dressed in white”. Now, she says, “I’ve just been interested in playing it more and more.”
Meanwhile, for other trendy Londoners, their love of boules has French roots - roots which they’re keen to re-pot into British soil. “My partner is French and we just went on holiday with all her friends to the south of France where they all fucking loved playing boules,” says Grace Evans, 26. “We ended up playing it every day, we could do it while smoking cigarettes, drinking. There’s just enough competition to make it interesting and but it’s still really fun and relaxing.”
Grace is keen for boules’ sudden new popularity in London to stay put. “I think we need more after work activities that don’t involve going to the pub,” she says, “like, why don’t we all just go to the park and play boules instead? Sounds like a dream.”
Christy Spring, 25, had a similar path to her boules obsession. “I’d always played boules as a child on summer holidays,” she says, “then when the weather was slightly hot this year I Amazon Primed a kit to come the next day. First I started playing with friends in Burgess Park, but the terrain wasn’t up for it, so I found a boules club in Vauxhall Park. It’s all French people drinking pastis and playing it serious, it’s such a vibe.”
For Christy, the appeal of boules is its lack of intensity. “I’m not very sporty or good at serious sports,” she says, “but you can literally crack a beer, throw some with your pals and it’s a nice afternoon activity. I feel like young people like it because it's nostalgic and low effort, living in London is expensive but you can do this for free. I also just can’t be arsed for everyone playing spike ball - boules has culture and history, you know.”
And perhaps the traditionally older boules crowd is exactly what has drawn the young people to it. As noted with Gen Z’s love of old man pubs, young people appear to be aspiring to the habits of the happily, lazily retired - maybe because the steadily increasing retirement age makes them feel as though they may never retire themselves.
Between that, a thirst for real-life community and a need for cheaper socialising options, it looks like boules is here to stay. So, if we do get the Indian summer we’ve been wishing for, you know what to do. And if we don’t, well, get practising for spring, because boules is staying cool well into 2025.
