VISITORS to Chester's Grosvenor Shopping Centre will soon be able to break up their shopping with some table tennis thanks to a new installation.

A new 'Ping Pong Parlour' has been been created in Unit 43 of the shopping centre, on the ground floor opposite Costa Coffee, which will have tables, bats and balls to allow the public to play the sport for free. The shopping centre has confirmed that the Ping Pong Parlour will open on Friday, July 21 and will be in place until September.

Ping Pong Parlours are pop-up spaces managed by Table Tennis England which usually take the space of empty shopping units. They form part of Table Tennis England's vision to encourage people to get active and promote the sport to newcomers, by providing the opportunity to try table tennis in areas where they would already spend time.

Grosvenor Shopping Centre said via Twitter: "Opening on Friday, and here until September!

"We have a great range of exciting activities over the summer inside the Shopping Centre, stay tuned for further updates."

In 2021 the Ping Pong Parlour project won the Activation Award in the prestigious ukactive national awards, which recognises initiatives which have inspired or encouraged people to be active in another setting. The project was also shortlisted for a Sports Industry Award in 2019.

The Grosvenor Shopping Center location will be the only Ping Pong Parlour in Cheshire West, which does have table tennis centres in both Ellesmere Port Sports Village and Barrow Village Hall, near Guilden Sutton.