Date Night Ideas in London

Setup.Contactless or Oyster for the Uber Boat by Thames Clippers river bus, a warm layer for the open back deck, and shoes for a steep park hill.

1. Board the river bus heading east from Westminster or London Eye Pier. Take the outside back deck and try to name each bridge before you pass under it.
2. Get off at Greenwich Pier and walk up through Greenwich Park to the statue of General Wolfe. The river, Canary Wharf, the City and the O2 are all laid out below you.
3. Walk back down to the Cutty Sark, where the Greenwich Foot Tunnel begins, and cross under the Thames together on foot.
4. Come up in Island Gardens on the Isle of Dogs and turn around: the view back to the old Greenwich Hospital is almost certainly the one Canaletto painted. Island Gardens DLR station is close by for the ride home.

Talk about:If you could live anywhere we saw from the water today, where would you pick and why?

Setup.Travel light: suitcases and large rucksacks are not allowed, and small items go in a clear bag the museum provides. It is not open every day, so check hours before you go.

1. Expect a short wait at the door; only a limited number of people fit inside at once, and the narrow, packed rooms are exactly why it is worth it.
2. Drift through the domed Breakfast Room and the Library Dining Room. Each of you quietly picks the one object you would take home if nobody were looking.
3. Find the picture gallery with its moveable wall panels, and track down Hogarth's eight canvases of A Rake's Progress somewhere in the house.
4. End at the sarcophagus of Seti I in the Sepulchral Chamber, then reveal your picks on a bench in Lincoln's Inn Fields outside.

Talk about:If we filled one room with things we collected together, what would be in it?

Setup.A free summer evening, the season listings open on a phone, comfortable shoes and a bottle of water.

1. Over breakfast, read the listings together and pick a concert neither of you would have chosen alone.
2. Buy two day Promming tickets that morning for the Arena or the Gallery, the two standing areas.
3. Get there in good time to find your spot together. The regulars are half the show, and Arena Prommers announce the running total of their charity collection at the interval.
4. Stand, listen properly, and swap one word reviews at the interval if there is one.
5. Afterwards, cross Kensington Gore to the Albert Memorial and talk about the moment that got you.

Talk about:What piece of music would play over the opening scene of the film about us?

Setup.An early alarm, warm layers, a flask of something hot, and binoculars if you own them. For most of the year the pedestrian gates are open around the clock, so dawn is fair game.

1. Walk in at first light and wander slowly, scanning the grass and the treeline for antlers.
2. When you spot deer, stop well back. The Royal Parks ask for at least 50 metres at all times, and during the autumn rut, from late September to early November, the stags deserve even more respect.
3. Head to King Henry's Mound in the Pembroke Lodge gardens and take turns at the telescope trained on St Paul's, then turn west for the Thames Valley panorama. If the gardens are not open yet, save the mound for the end of the walk.
4. In April or May, detour to the Isabella Plantation while the azaleas and camellias are in flower.
5. Pour the flask on a bench and decide together what to do with a day that started this early.

Talk about:What is one thing you would want us to wake up early for more often?

Setup.Comfortable shoes and a free weekend morning or afternoon. Nothing to book and nothing to pay.

1. Start at St Dunstan in the East, between London Bridge and the Tower of London. The church was badly damaged in the Blitz and its ruins have been a public garden since 1971; sit by the low fountain in the old nave.
2. Walk to Guildhall Yard and find the black circle set into the paving. It traces the arena of London's Roman amphitheatre, and some of the remains are on show in the basement of the Guildhall Art Gallery beside it.
3. Carry on to Postman's Park, a short walk north of St Paul's Cathedral, and read the Watts Memorial tablets together, each one a person remembered for dying while saving someone else.
4. Choose the story that stays with you most and tell each other why.

Talk about:Who in your life has done something quietly brave that almost nobody noticed?

Setup.An admission ticket each, which covers both the East and West sides for the whole day. No booking is needed to explore on your own; book a guided tour ahead if you want one. Shoes that can cope with steep, muddy paths.

1. Take the tube to Archway and head up to Swain's Lane, where the cemetery's two sides face each other across the road.
2. Start on the East side and find George Eliot and Douglas Adams, then the Karl Marx tomb.
3. Cross to the West side, the original 1839 cemetery, for the Egyptian Avenue, the Circle of Lebanon and the most elaborate Victorian tombs. A guided tour of about 75 minutes is worth it on a first visit.
4. Stay on the paths as you go; the cemetery asks visitors not to leave them or climb on any monument.
5. Finish next door in Waterlow Park on a bench and talk about which life story surprised you most.

Talk about:A hundred years from now, what would you want one line about the two of us to say?

Setup.A pair of indie record shops. A budget, one record each, no more.

1. Each picks one record for the other based on cover and sleeve only.
2. Reveal at the till of the second shop.
3. Buy them. Walk home.
4. Listen to both end-to-end that evening, in order.

Setup.A Sunday roast pub for lunch. A second pub within walking distance for after.

1. Reserve the roast, Sundays book up fast.
2. Walk slowly to the second pub.
3. A half-pint and a dessert at the second.
4. Quiz night if you happen on one, stay.

Setup.A Christmas market in December. Mittens, hats, cash for the stalls.

1. Glühwein first, the mug is your warming tool.
2. Walk the market once before any food.
3. Pick one ornament you both like, ban impulse buys after.
4. End at a Christmas concert if there is one nearby.

Setup.An antiquarian or used bookshop in a literary city. Cash for small purchases. A budget.

1. Each picks the section they would never otherwise visit.
2. Spend 30 minutes there. Pick one book.
3. Reveal at the till.
4. Read at a café for 30 minutes before walking on.

Setup.A pick-your-own orchard within an hour's drive. Autumn weekends.

1. Go early to skip the queue.
2. Pick more than you think, they keep.
3. Cider doughnut and hot apple cider before driving home.

Setup.An independent cheese shop with a counter. Cash for tips.

1. Tell the cheesemonger your style, soft, hard, blue, weird.
2. Six tastes between you. Buy three to take home.
3. Pair with bread and fruit at home.

Setup.A train ticket to a town 60–90 minutes away. A return ticket for after dinner.

1. Take the early train. Coffee on board.
2. Walk one full loop of the town in the morning.
3. Long lunch in a place tourists do not go to.
4. Bench in the afternoon, then home on the slow train.

Setup.A restaurant doing weekend bottomless brunch. Reservations.

1. Order water alongside everything, important.
2. Eat the eggs first, the cocktails second.
3. Walk for at least 30 minutes after.

Setup.A book each (paper, please, not phones). Two armchairs or one couch. Tea or wine.

1. Sit across from each other. Set a 90-minute timer.
2. No conversation. No phones. Just read.
3. Halfway: pause for snacks, no commentary on the books yet.
4. After the timer, each shares one paragraph that hit them.

Setup.A fringe or off-off theatre. Cheap tickets, usually under $20.

1. Read the synopsis at the door, not before.
2. Stay for the whole show even if it loses you.
3. Drink at the theatre bar afterwards. Most fringe places have one.
4. Walk home rating it on a scale of "great" to "great in a different way".

Setup.Three small wines (or teas if sober), three different dark chocolates (60–80%). A scoring sheet.

1. Pour blind, one of you covers labels with foil.
2. Smell, sip, score on three axes (one of which you invent).
3. Pair each chocolate with each drink. Find the best pairing.
4. Reveal the labels at the end.

Setup.A shared Pinterest or Are.na board. A theme, "our place in five years".

1. Each pins 30 images silently.
2. Look at the combined board together.
3. Build a "must-have" list of five things.