Game Hire at Royal Armouries and New Dock Hall, Leeds

The Royal Armouries is an unusual venue to plan entertainment for, because it's really two things at once: a purpose-built conference complex in New Dock Hall, and a working museum whose galleries double as event spaces. What works in one won't necessarily work in the other. Fun Pro supplies interactive games, arcade machines and event entertainment into events held across both. We don't hire out the venue; that goes through the Royal Armouries events team. Our part starts once your space is confirmed.

We've been supplying corporate events since 2009 and we're based in Coventry, roughly 120 miles down the M1. Leeds Dock is a venue we're comfortable working in, and as you'll see below, parts of it are among the easiest sites in the city to load into.

About Royal Armouries and New Dock Hall as an Events Venue

The venue sits on Armouries Drive at Leeds Dock, on the waterfront development just south of the city centre. It's the largest dedicated conference, exhibition and events space in Leeds, hosting more than 380 national and international events a year and taking up to 2,500 attendees across the site.

The practical details tend to matter more than the headline figure. There's a multi-storey car park on site for 1,650 vehicles, around 850 hotel bedrooms within a five-minute walk, and 16 bookable spaces ranging from a 20-person boardroom to a 1,500-capacity hall. Leeds railway station is a short hop away, and Leeds Bradford Airport is around 30 minutes by road.

Bookings go through the venue's events team on 0113 220 1990.

Spaces at Royal Armouries and the Games That Suit Them

H3: New Dock Hall

New Dock Hall is the flagship: 1,259 square metres, completely free of pillars, taking 1,500 for a reception, 1,200 theatre-style, 1,100 for dinner and 750 cabaret. For our purposes the important feature is that it's on the ground floor with loading bay doors straight from the service yard into the room.

That's about as good as venue access gets, and it means nothing on our list is off the table here. Racing simulators, Grab A Grand cash cubes, the Ballnado and full banks of arcade machines all work at this scale, whether you're running an exhibition or an awards dinner.

Royal Armouries Hall and the Bury Theatre

Royal Armouries Hall sits just inside the museum's main entrance on the ground floor, covering 886 square metres and taking 1,000 for a reception, 650 for dinner or 600 theatre-style. It is divided into three sound-proofed sections and links directly to the Bury Theatre on one side.

The Bury itself is a fixed, tiered lecture theatre for up to 250, so it's a presentation space rather than a games space. If your plenary is in the Bury, the games belong next door in Armouries Hall, where attendees pass through between sessions. Reaction games like Batak Pro and Strike a Light do well in that position, drawing people in during breaks.

The Museum Galleries

This is where the venue differs from anywhere else in Leeds. The Tournament Gallery (200 for a reception), the War Gallery (400) and the Asian and African Gallery (300) are all live museum galleries, hired for receptions and themed evenings among the collections.

Games can absolutely go in, but the footprint, positioning and any cabling need agreeing with the venue in advance, because you're working around display cases and visitor routes. Compact and self-contained is the way to go here. Shuffleboard, a Prize Wheel or a photo booth will sit comfortably; a racing simulator probably won't. We'll tell you honestly which is which.

The Pearl Suite and Smaller Rooms

The Pearl Suite on the first floor takes 200 for a reception or 168 for dinner, with floor-to-ceiling windows over Leeds Dock. Below that sit the News Room (300), the Mulberry Suite (100), and the Aire, Barton and Hotot Suites, which handle 25 to 60 people for meetings and breakouts.

The suites are working meeting rooms rather than entertainment spaces, so if your day is spread across several of them, we'd suggest siting one or two games in the Pearl Suite or an adjacent circulation area where everyone converges. Note that the Pearl Suite was previously called the Wellington Suite, and some third-party listings still use the old name.

What Fun Pro Handles, and What We Don't

What we handle:

• Delivering the games to Leeds Dock on your event date and getting them into your space
• Setting up, testing and safety-checking before your attendees arrive
• Staffing the games throughout, with our own team rather than sub-contractors
• Packing down and collecting at the agreed time

What we don't handle:

• Venue hire, room allocation or floor plans, which the Royal Armouries events team manages
• Catering, day delegate packages, bar service, AV or staging
• Access to or handling of anything in the museum collections
• Overnight storage between event days, unless it's been arranged with the venue first

Planning Entertainment for a Royal Armouries Event

Your first question should be which building you're in, because the answer changes everything. New Dock Hall and Royal Armouries Hall are both ground floor with loading bays, so setup is quick and the equipment list is wide open. The museum galleries and upper-floor suites are a different proposition, with lifts, visitor routes and, in the galleries, exhibits to work around.

Share your floor plan early and we'll come back with a realistic list rather than a hopeful one. It's also worth flagging if you're using a gallery, since the venue will want to agree positioning in advance and we'd rather build that into the plan than discover it on the day.

Lead times run about four to six weeks for busy periods, including the Christmas season, when New Dock Hall and Armouries Hall both run party nights. Simpler bookings can often be arranged in around two weeks. Branded games need a bit longer, since we design and print the wraps in-house.

With events here often running to several hundred attendees across a wide age and ability range, a spread of games works better than one big centrepiece. Something like Roll & Bowl alongside a reaction game covers most of the room.

Getting Games Delivered to Royal Armouries

We're based in Coventry, around 120 miles away straight up the M1. Delivery, setup and collection are included in your quote.

For New Dock Hall we'll arrange service yard access with the events team, which usually means a straightforward drive-in and a quick turnaround. For museum spaces we allow more time, since the route is longer and positioning takes more care. For exhibitions we tend to arrive early so the stand has time to come together properly.

Our safety and insurance page covers our PAT testing and public liability cover, which the venue will want to see, and our testimonials page has feedback from clients around the UK.

Planning something at Leeds Dock? Get in touch with your space, attendee numbers and timings and we'll put a quote together.