Unusual Things to Do in Southampton

Westquay is best known as a shopping centre, but its leisure offer gives you several ways to make a day in Southampton more eventful. The difference is that these aren't simply places to go and browse. You can compete, solve puzzles, play, build and try something completely outside your usual routine.

Take on Boom Battle Bar

If the usual drinks-and-dinner evening sounds predictable, Boom Battle Bar gives you something to do while you're out. The Westquay venue combines competitive games including axe throwing, shuffleboard, Boom Box karaoke and darts, alongside food and drinks.

The appeal is the variety. You might come for one activity and end up trying another, while the competitive element gives a group something to focus on beyond simply sitting around a table.

Axe throwing is perhaps the most immediately unusual option, but shuffleboard and darts offer something more familiar if you want a lower-key competition. Boom Box karaoke changes the format again, turning the visit into more of a social activity.

It's particularly suited to groups who want an activity-led evening, with enough different games to keep the experience from feeling like a single-purpose venue.

Go Beyond Bowling at Hollywood Bowl

Bowling might not immediately spring to mind when you think of unusual things to do in Southampton, but Hollywood Bowl at Westquay offers more than lanes and scoreboards.

Alongside bowling, the venue has retro arcade games, VIP areas and virtual reality experiences, giving you several ways to spend time there.

The arcade element is particularly worth knowing about if your group isn't made up entirely of keen bowlers. You can split your time between the lanes and games, making the visit feel more like a small entertainment session than a conventional bowling trip.

It's also an option for mixed-age groups, friends or colleagues who want something informal. You don't need to make the entire outing about getting the highest score. The combination of bowling, arcade games and VR means everyone can find something to get involved with.

See If You Can Escape Locked in a Room

Escape rooms turn an ordinary group outing into a timed puzzle. At Locked in a Room at Westquay, teams of up to six enter one of eight themed rooms and work through clues and challenges before the clock runs out.

The experience is less about individual skill than how well everyone works together. One person might spot a clue that someone else knows how to use, while another keeps track of what the group has already tried. That makes it a particularly different option for friends or colleagues who want something that gives everyone a role.

The themed rooms also mean you can choose an experience that suits your group. If you've never tried an escape room before, it's a straightforward way to discover whether you enjoy solving problems under pressure.

If you do plan to go, booking ahead is sensible, particularly for popular weekend times.

Shopping doesn't have to mean looking for something specific. Some of Westquay's more unusual stores are worth exploring precisely because you don't quite know what you'll find.

Five shops in particular bring something different to a conventional shopping trip, from collectible figures and quirky gadgets to building, customising and creating.

Hunt for Unexpected Finds at Flying Tiger Copenhagen

Flying Tiger Copenhagen is the shop to browse when you don't have a shopping list. Its range covers colourful stationery, homeware, games, toys, gadgets and seasonal products, with stock changing regularly.

That constant change is part of the appeal. You can walk in looking for a small gift and end up discovering a game, kitchen item or piece of stationery you hadn't considered.

For an unusual day in Southampton, that makes Flying Tiger more interesting than a conventional retail stop. The point isn't necessarily to find one particular product. It's to see what catches your eye.

Find Quirky Gifts and Gadgets at MenKind

MenKind takes the unexpected shopping idea in a different direction, with gadgets, games, toys, puzzles, quirky homeware, gifts and wellness products.

It's particularly suited to browsing for a present when you don't want to buy another conventional gift. The range crosses several categories, so you can move from tech and gadgets to games and novelty products in the same visit.

That makes it worth including in an unusual Southampton itinerary even if you're not actively shopping. You might find something that becomes part of the day's story rather than something you arrived intending to buy.

Discover Collectibles at POP MART

POP MART brings a very different type of shopping experience to Westquay. The brand specialises in collectible art toys, including characters such as THE MONSTERS, LABUBU, CRYBABY and SKULLPANDA, with blind boxes, limited editions and creative collaborations forming a major part of the range.

The blind-box format adds an element of surprise because you don't know exactly which figure you'll get until you open it. That makes browsing part of the experience, particularly for collectors who are looking for a specific character or visitors discovering the format for the first time.

You don't need to be an established collector to understand the appeal. The store is simply a very different proposition from a conventional high-street shop, with designer toys and pop-culture characters taking centre stage.

Create Your Own Character at Build-A-Bear Workshop

Build-A-Bear Workshop turns shopping into an activity. Instead of choosing a finished toy from a shelf, you create a furry character from the beginning, choosing the animal and then adding details such as clothing, a name, sound or scent.

That makes it one of the more unusual things to do at Westquay because the finished item is also a record of the experience. You're not simply taking something home. You have made decisions about how it looks and what personality it has.

The Southampton store also carries character ranges including Pokémon, Star Wars, Disney and Animal Crossing, so the experience can appeal to fans of particular franchises as well as people who simply want to make something of their own.

Build Something Different at LEGO

The LEGO Store offers another way to make shopping more hands-on. Alongside its range of sets, the Westquay store lists in-store play experiences and events, making it more than a place to pick up a box and leave.

For anyone who still enjoys building, it can be an easy way to add a creative stop to a day in Southampton. You can browse sets based on everything from familiar franchises to more intricate display builds, then take the building experience home with you.

It's also a reminder that an unusual shopping trip doesn't necessarily mean buying something obscure. Sometimes the difference is simply having something to do while you're there.

A cooking class is a different proposition from going out for a meal, and Thaikhun's Cooking Masterclass gives you the chance to learn how Thai street food is made.

The classes last around two hours and are designed for small groups of six to ten participants. The session includes an introduction to Thai ingredients, a demonstration and hands-on cooking, with participants learning to prepare a starter and main course. Equipment and aprons are provided.

That makes the experience particularly suited to anyone who likes to come away from a day out having learned something. You get the social side of cooking with a group, but there is also a practical skill to take home.

It also fits neatly into a Westquay-based day because the restaurant is close to the centre. Rather than treating food as something that happens between activities, the cooking class makes it the activity itself.

Southampton's history is easy to miss if you stick to the modern city. Look more closely and the Old Town reveals medieval walls, historic gateways, surviving ruins and marks left by people who lived in the city centuries ago.

This is where Southampton becomes genuinely unusual. You don't have to enter a themed attraction to find something unexpected. Some of the city's strangest stories are built into the streets.

Walk the Medieval Walls and Old Town Circuit

The Walk the Walls trail is one of the best ways to see Southampton's medieval history as part of the modern city. The free, self-guided route begins at the Bargate and takes you through the historic Old Town, past surviving sections of the medieval defences, towers, gateways and other historic features.

Southampton's walls were built over several centuries as the prosperous trading town developed and needed protection. Today, parts of those defences survive alongside streets, restaurants, shops and the waterfront.

What makes the walk unusual is the contrast. You can be standing beside medieval stonework one moment and looking out across the modern city the next. In places, the route allows you to walk alongside or on top of surviving sections of the walls, giving you a different perspective on the Old Town.

It's also one of the easiest unusual experiences to add to a Southampton day because there's no admission charge and you can explore at your own pace.

Look for Centuries-Old Graffiti at Tudor House

Tudor House offers a more intimate way to discover Southampton's past. Rather than simply looking at an old building, pay attention to the marks that previous visitors and occupants left behind.

Historic graffiti has been recorded at the house, including examples dating from the late 16th and early 17th centuries. The marks include ships, faces and animals, giving a glimpse into the less formal side of life inside a historic building.

That detail changes how you look at the house. Instead of seeing only the architecture and furnished rooms, you can start looking for evidence of the people who passed through it and left their own traces behind.

It's exactly the sort of small discovery that fits the idea of an unusual Southampton experience. You might walk into Tudor House expecting a history lesson and leave having spent part of the visit looking closely at graffiti that is hundreds of years old.

Explore the Ruins of Holy Rood Church

The remains of Holy Rood Church are another example of Southampton's history surviving in an unexpected form.

The church was built in 1320 and became known as the Sailors' Church because of the number of sailors living in the parish. It was badly damaged during an air raid in November 1940, when the church was burnt out. The tower and some of the medieval structure survived, while other parts later collapsed.

Today, the ruins stand as a reminder of several different periods of Southampton's history at once. Medieval origins, centuries of changes to the building and the destruction of the Second World War are all part of the same site.

That layered history is what makes Holy Rood unusual. You're not visiting a preserved building frozen at one moment in time. You're seeing what remains after the city around it changed repeatedly.

Start at the Bargate

The Bargate is one of Southampton's most recognisable landmarks, but it becomes more interesting when you treat it as the starting point for exploring the Old Town rather than simply a building to photograph.

The medieval gateway dates from around 1180 and stands at the historic northern entrance to the Old Town. It forms the starting point for the Walk the Walls trail, making it a natural first stop before following the city's medieval defences.

Take a moment to look at the Bargate before setting off. Its position makes more sense when you imagine Southampton as a walled medieval trading town, with people and goods entering through the gateway rather than the busy modern city that surrounds it today.

From here, the Old Town opens up as a much larger historical experience. The Bargate is the beginning of the story, rather than the whole attraction.

Visit the Ruins of Netley Abbey

For something unusual beyond central Southampton, head towards Netley Abbey.

The remains are among the most substantial medieval ruins in the area. English Heritage describes Netley as the most complete surviving Cistercian abbey in southern England, with much of its 13th-century church walls still standing alongside remains of other monastic buildings.

The site has had several lives. After the Dissolution, the buildings were converted into a Tudor house, while the ruins later became celebrated as a picturesque medieval landscape and an inspiration for Romantic writers and poets.

Entry to Netley Abbey is free and the site is currently open daily from 10am to 4pm, except 25 December. There are uneven surfaces and falling-masonry hazards, and climbing on the ruins is prohibited.

It's a particularly good option if you want your unusual day out to involve a sense of exploration. The setting feels very different from central Southampton, even though the abbey's history is closely connected to the wider area.

The best unusual days out in Southampton don't necessarily need to follow a single theme. The city's activities, shopping and history can be combined depending on what you want from the day.

For a competitive day with friends 

Start at Westquay with Boom Battle Bar or Locked in a Room, then make time for one of the centre's more unusual shops. POP MART, Flying Tiger Copenhagen and MenKind all offer very different browsing experiences.

For a creative day 

Try Build-A-Bear Workshop or LEGO, then make food part of the experience with a Thaikhun Cooking Masterclass. The combination gives you something to make, something to eat and something new to learn.

For a history-focused day 

Start at the Bargate and follow the Walk the Walls trail through the Old Town. Add Tudor House if you want to look more closely at the city's past, then continue towards the ruins of Holy Rood Church.

For a free day out 

The medieval walls and Old Town are the obvious starting point. Netley Abbey also offers free entry if you're prepared to travel beyond the city centre, while the ruins of Holy Rood Church add another historic stop.

And if your definition of unusual is simply doing something you haven't tried before, Westquay gives you plenty of opportunities to change the usual shopping routine. You can escape a room, throw an axe, explore blind-box collectibles, build a character or spend an afternoon looking for something you didn't know you wanted.

Southampton's unusual side isn't concentrated in one attraction. It's scattered across the city, from the things you can try at Westquay to the details hidden in its oldest streets. The trick is knowing where to look.