What is Dopamine Land?
Probably the most important thing to know about immersive London experience Dopamine Land, is that it is called Dopamine Land. Where some other, similar events make a slightly cringey play to be viewed as art or informative, Dopamine Land makes no such claim: it’s a series of rooms full of mirrors and balls that broadly exist for you to dick around in and take some sweet selfies. It’s not art, it’s fun: it’s Dopamine Land, baby!
What age is Dopamine Land for?
When it launched way back in 2022 it was aimed at adults as much as kids, perhaps slightly more. It probably draws a different crowd in the evenings, but the vibes when I visited were distinctly families only - there’s something slightly hilarious about the fact you can buy cocktails at the end, as if one might get hammered in a soft play. Certainly it seems like a truly strange place to go for a first date, culminating as it does in a pillow-fight room. But for your average group of children, it’s undoubtedly a good time, and the staff are slick and good humoured when it comes to herding minors around.
It’s not art, it’s fun: it’s Dopamine Land, baby!
How long do you need in Dopamine Land?
The officially time they recommend is 30 minutes to an hour. We probably spent around 45 minutes there total, which is fairly brisk but we felt like we had enough time in each room. There is a bit of waiting around, although this is a function of your group getting several of the rooms to themselves for a spell of time, which is preferable to 50 people gathering in the fan-favourite ball pool for an hour.
Is Dopamine Land worth visiting?
Rooms vary a lot, with some a bit nothingy (a ‘shadow puppet room’ is basically some white light shining on a wall). There’s nothing dazzlingly innovative here and indeed it’s kind of a grab bag of stuff you’ve probably seen fancier versions of elsewhere: the ball pool; an infinity mirror room; a new agey chill out room with floating ceiling lanterns; the pillow fight; the bar at the end where you can buy bubble tea mocktails and pose for selfies in various mini scenes set up for your pleasure. Again, I would struggle to look at an adult who would choose to do this stuff straight in the eye, but for kids it’s genuinely a lot of fun, and perhaps even a mini introduction to a wider immersive experience world. Yeah, it nicks a bit from Yayoi Kusama, but that is not really something you can say about your local playground, is it?