First date ideas in London that aren't boring

Because somewhere between "what's your love language" and a £14 Aperol Spritz, dating feels like it lost the plot

Let me paint you a picture. It's a Tuesday evening. You've spent forty-five minutes choosing an outfit that says "I tried but not too hard," you've told three separate friends where you're going in case you get murdered, and you arrive at a generic bar in Shoreditch to find someone who looks vaguely like their photos sitting awkwardly on a barstool, nursing a £14 cocktail they didn't really want.

"So," they say. "What do you do?"

And just like that, you're in a job interview with an aperol (which is better than a job interview without aperol tbf)

London is one of the most interesting cities on earth. There is genuinely no excuse for this. If you've been subjecting yourself (and other people) to the bar-near-a-tube-station date, this is your intervention.

Here are some first date ideas in London that might actually result in a second one.

Go somewhere that gives you something to talk about

The single biggest problem with the classic drinks date is that you're entirely dependent on each other for entertainment. No pressure. Two strangers, face to face, performing the greatest hits of their personality with no safety net.

Add literally anything else into the equation: a weird exhibition, a pottery class, a terrible film at a vintage cinema and SUDDENLY you have material. You're not just two people trying to be interesting. You're two people reacting to something together, which is a much more honest window into whether you actually like each other.

• Tate Modern has free entry and will make both of you look cultured whether or not you understand what you're looking at.

  
  

• The Viktor Wynd Museum of Curiosities in Hackney is strange enough to do most of the conversational heavy lifting for you.

  
  

• Broadway Market on a Saturday gives you something to wander around, snack on, and comment on without any of the pressure of sustained eye contact across a small table.

Do something mildly embarrassing together

There is a theory: backed by actual science, that shared vulnerability creates faster connection than almost anything else. Doing something you're both bad at, in public, is a remarkably efficient way to drop the performance and just be a person.

Axe throwing venues have multiplied across London at a rate that suggests either a very specific cultural moment or a collective processing of frustration.

Climbing gyms are genuinely fun once you get past the bit where you fall off a wall in front of a stranger.

Mini golf, which should by all rights be embarrassing to suggest, has had a full glow-up- there are now multiple indoor courses in London with cocktails and questionable carpeting and everyone is absolutely delighted to be there.

The point is not to be impressive. The point is to be bad at something together and laugh about it. That is, incidentally, also the point of a good relationship.

Try a comedy or social event designed for exactly this

Here is something the dating app industry would prefer you didn't know: meeting people in person is significantly better than meeting people on a screen. The chemistry question- the one no amount of texting can answer- gets resolved in about four minutes.

Comedy-led social events have been quietly becoming one of the best first date ideas in London for exactly this reason. A few are worth knowing about.

• Funnier Than Your Mum is a live interactive dating show format where the audience is part of the atmosphere. People consistently describe it as feeling less like a dating event and more like ending up at a really good house party. Nobody is sat at a table doing the job interview thing. The laughter does the work that small talk usually can't.

  
  

• Too Thirsty is a live interactive dating show format too where the audience is part of the show. It's high energy, slightly chaotic in the best possible way, and the kind of night where something genuinely unexpected tends to happen.

  
  

• Board of Dating Apps or BODA: leans into the social mixer side of things, with games and structured interaction that somehow manages not to feel structured at all. Good if you want the safety net of an activity without it feeling like a team-building exercise.

  
  

  All three are worth bookmarking. If you've already matched with someone and want a first date that removes the awkward silences by design, any of these will do considerably more work than a barstool and a drinks menu.

The "walk somewhere interesting" date is underrated

This one is free, requires no booking, and is quietly one of the best formats going. Pick somewhere with enough visual interest that you're not just two people standing on a pavement- Hampstead Heath, the South Bank, Columbia Road on a flower market Sunday, Nunhead Cemetery if you're both the kind of person for whom that sounds romantic rather than alarming.

Walking side by side is psychologically easier than sitting opposite someone. Less confrontational. More like you're already on the same team. First date ideas in London don't have to be elaborate. Sometimes the best ones are just a direction and a willingness to keep going.

A word on the food date

It's not that dinner is bad. Dinner can be wonderful. But dinner as a first date puts a lot of pressure on a situation that doesn't yet need it- you're committing to at least ninety minutes with someone you've never met, in a setting where leaving early requires a small amount of theatre.

If you do go for food, make it somewhere casual enough that it doesn't feel like an occasion. A ramen spot. A market. Somewhere loud enough that silence isn't deafening. Save the nice restaurant for when you actually know you like each other. That way it means something.

London is full of people who are more interesting than their dating profiles suggest, and full of places interesting enough to bring that out.

But if you want our take...

The best first date ideas in London aren't really about the activity- they're about creating the conditions where two people can relax enough to be themselves. If you want a head start on that, Funnier Than Your Mum events are a pretty good place to start...