Magician and experience designer Larissa Sophie Houghton is expanding immersive entertainment brand Ted’s Crazy Golf from Oxford to London, backed by a six-figure self-funded investment across its first two venues.
The concept launched at Westgate Oxford in August 2026, with the full experience at its second venue in Shoreditch set to open from 22nd October.
Together, the two locations represent 15,000 sq ft of immersive entertainment space and 42 jobs, combining original characters, large-scale installations, animatronics, theatrical design, food and drink within an experience designed to take crazy golf beyond the traditional format.
The first Ted’s Crazy Golf opened at Westgate Oxford on 13 August 2026. Occupying 10,000 sq ft, the venue features two immersive 9-hole courses, Bad Bones and Fun House, alongside a retro-inspired bar and diner. The Oxford venue employs 22 people, has capacity for 250 guests and has already seen 5,000 games of golf played since opening, alongside 32 larger corporate and group bookings in its first month.
The Oxford venue is also expanding its entertainment offer further, with two state-of-the-art duck pin bowling lanes set to open in mid-October. The addition will give visitors another experience alongside crazy golf, food and drink, as Ted’s looks to develop the site into a broader entertainment destination.
Following the Oxford launch, Ted’s is now bringing the concept to London, taking over the former Temper restaurant site at 78 Great Eastern Street, Shoreditch.
The 5,000 sq ft London venue will employ 20 people and have capacity for 175 guests, with two immersive 9-hole courses including Toy Bites, a completely new experience developed specifically for Shoreditch, alongside the Bad Bones course first introduced in Oxford.
The former restaurant has undergone a 12-week transformation, with its existing layout completely reinvented to accommodate 18 holes of crazy golf and the wider Ted’s experience. The project has brought together artists, illustrators, prop designers, fabricators and scenic artists from across the creative industries.
Internationally recognised illustrator The Butcher Billy, whose work includes projects connected to Stranger Things, Black Mirror and Marvel, has worked on the venue, while Callum Bell of Callum Bell Creations has led prop design and fabrication, bringing experience from major film productions including Frankenstein, Star Wars, Mickey 17 and Sonic the Hedgehog.
Fabricator Derek Bell has also joined the project alongside five further scenic artists and fabricators, while street artist Russell Meehan, also known as qubek, has contributed painting and artwork, bringing experience from large-scale creative projects and commissions including work for Puma, Bombay Sapphire and Madre.
Chicago-based Pete Infelise has also played a key role in the transformation, working closely with the team to create masks for a number of the venue’s installations and animatronics. Best known for his work with Kirk Hammett of Metallica and Slash of Guns N’ Roses, Pete has brought his specialist experience and distinctive creative style to the new Shoreditch venue.
The creative mind behind Ted’s Crazy Golf
Behind the creative concept is Larissa Sophie Houghton, co-founder of experience-led hospitality company Anger MGMT Venues, who has spent more than a decade turning imaginative ideas into immersive entertainment experiences.
Her previous creations include Paradise Skate World, an intergalactic roller rink in Manchester, and Big in Japan, a Japanese-inspired live game show experience.
Combining her background as a magician and experience designer with storytelling, art and creative production, Larissa has taken her fascination with making the impossible feel real and applied it on a much larger scale, creating entire worlds that people can physically step inside and explore.
Her creative process began long before she entered the hospitality and entertainment industry. Growing up with a fascination for R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps books, monsters and haunted houses, she developed an interest in imagining impossible worlds and finding ways to make them real.
Larissa Sophie Houghton, co-founder of Ted’s Crazy Golf, said: “I was absolutely obsessed with R.L. Stine growing up. I was always reading Goosebumps, listening to Ozzy Osbourne and imagining these monsters and completely ridiculous worlds in my head. I think a huge part of my creative brain still comes from that place.”
“I’ve always loved the idea that something can exist purely in your imagination and then, somehow, you can make it real. That’s really what creating impossible experiences is about for me.”
Today, she applies that same thinking on a much larger scale, working alongside artists, designers, sculptors, fabricators and special-effects creatives to turn original concepts into physical environments.
“I love starting with an idea that sounds completely ridiculous and then asking, ‘How could we actually make that happen?’ The more impossible the idea sounds, the more excited I get.”
“Ted’s is basically a giant playground for my imagination. I get to take all these weird things that normally only exist inside your head and make them physical. You can walk into the world, touch it, play in it and discover it.”
Building an immersive hospitality brand
Inspired by late-1980s and early-1990s Americana, cult movies, comedy horror and nostalgic pop culture, Ted’s Crazy Golf combines immersive entertainment, theatrical design and hospitality within an original fictional world.
Rather than simply designing golf courses, each experience is built around its own story, with original characters, artwork, props and installations developed specifically for the venue.
At Oxford, guests can take on Bad Bones, a gothic graveyard filled with trash-talking gargoyles and monstrous creatures, alongside Fun House, a twisted carnival-inspired course.
Shoreditch takes the concept further with the introduction of Toy Bites, a new 9-hole experience set inside a vampire toyshop and featuring large-scale installations including a six-foot vampire robot, alongside the returning Bad Bones course.
For Larissa, the concept has also been shaped by what she sees as growing demand for real-world, social experiences that give people an opportunity to step away from their screens.
The early response to Oxford has reinforced that belief, with competitive, group and social occasions proving an important part of demand.
Larissa added: “There is a really strong appetite for analogue experiences where people can come together, be competitive, socialise, be present and engage with something away from their screens.
“The desire for fun activities like crazy golf is absolutely still there, but I think reinvention and evolution are key. People want more from hospitality experiences now. They want something they can escape into and something that feels different every time they visit.”
Expanding the experience in Oxford
While Shoreditch marks Ted’s expansion into London, the business is also continuing to develop its first venue in Oxford. Two state-of-the-art duck pin bowling lanes will be introduced at Westgate Oxford in mid-October, adding another competitive social experience alongside the venue’s two crazy golf courses.
The team is also exploring plans to introduce immersive karaoke pods in 2027, as part of a wider ambition to broaden the range of experiences available at the Oxford venue. For Larissa, the additions reflect the same approach that underpins Ted’s more widely: venues should continue to evolve rather than remaining unchanged after opening.
Larissa said: “Oxford gives us a brilliant opportunity to bring different experiences together under one roof. Crazy golf is at the heart of Ted’s, but we don’t want the venue to stand still. Adding bowling gives people another reason to visit and another way to spend time together, and we’re already looking at what else we can introduce in the future.”
“For us, that constant evolution is really important. We want the venues to keep changing, with new experiences, artwork and installations giving people something different to discover when they come back.”
