Cheap Dates London — affordable date ideas by season

22 ideas

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Brick Lane Beigel Bake
Cheap
Shoreditch · Food
Salt beef bagels well under a fiver, open all hours, then browse the vintage stalls.
Columbia Road Flower Market
Free
Bethnal Green · Outdoors
Wander the Sunday flower market, split a coffee, and pick up one stem each. Costs nothing to look and about a fiver to leave with something.
Greenwich Park
Free
Greenwich · Outdoors
Picnic on the hill, stand on the meridian line, and watch the city from the observatory slope.
Hampstead Heath Ponds
Cheap
Hampstead · Outdoors
A wild swim and a walk up Parliament Hill. A few quid each for the ponds, the view is on the house.
Sky Garden
Free
City of London · Views
Book ahead and the highest public garden in London is free. A cocktail at the top is optional, not required.
Tate Modern
Free
Bankside · Culture
Free entry to the collection, plus the river terrace for a skyline that does the impressing for you.
Gorilla Circus flying trapeze
Moderate
Regent's Park · Outdoors
A beginners' flying-trapeze lesson in the open air of Regent's Park. Genuinely thrilling, a bit of a workout, and completely unlike anything else you could suggest. Runs through the warmer months, so book a slot ahead.
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Highgate Cemetery
Cheap
Highgate · Outdoors
Victorian tombs swallowed by ivy, winding paths and famous residents. It sounds macabre and is quietly beautiful, especially the overgrown West side. A few pounds to enter, and a proper walk with something to talk about.
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Mercato Metropolitano
Cheap
Elephant & Castle · Food
A cavernous Italian food market in a former paper factory. Split a pizza, share a few small plates, nurse one drink and people-watch. You can eat well here for very little and nobody rushes you out.
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Monmouth Coffee
Cheap
Covent Garden · Food
A tiny, always-busy coffee house by Seven Dials with some of the best beans in town. Squeeze in for a flat white, or take them to go and wander the Dials. Low stakes, low cost, easy to leave early or stay for hours.
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National Portrait Gallery Friday lates
Free
Charing Cross · Culture
On Friday evenings the gallery stays open late and hands out paper and charcoal. Pick a portrait you both like and sketch it badly. You leave with a souvenir of the date and a running joke about whose was worse.
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National Theatre & BFI riverside
Free
South Bank · Culture
The National Theatre foyers usually have a free exhibition on, and they stay open late. Pair it with a riverside stroll and a coffee in the BFI bar next door. The whole evening can cost you the price of two hot drinks.
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Novelty Automation
Cheap
Holborn · Culture
A one-room arcade of handmade, satirical machines you play with old-fashioned tokens. Buy a few tokens, take on the "test your nerve" contraption together and laugh a lot. Cheap, silly and completely original.
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A Santander bike river loop
Cheap
Thames Path · Outdoors
Hire a pair of Santander bikes and follow the protected CS3 lane along the river from the Tower to Hyde Park, hopping between parks and cafés so each leg stays under the 30-minute free window. Quiet on a weekday, blissful.
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Sir John Soane's Museum
Free
Lincoln's Inn Fields · Culture
An architect's house crammed floor to ceiling with antiquities, kept exactly as he left it. Free by day, and magic on the candlelit evening openings, so watch the calendar and book. Small, strange and unforgettable.
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Somerset House Ice Rink
Cheap
Strand · Outdoors
Skating in the courtyard of an eighteenth-century palace with the tree lit up in the middle. Book an off-peak slot to keep it cheap, and warm up afterwards with a hot chocolate. Winter only.
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The South Kensington museums
Free
South Kensington · Culture
The V&A and the Natural History Museum sit across the road from each other, both free, both endless. The V&A courtyard café is a soft landing if it rains. Go for a late opening and you skip the school crowds.
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Southbank Centre & the river walk
Free
South Bank · Culture
Free foyers, exhibitions and a riverside that does the work for you. Wander the Southbank Centre, then walk the Thames path past the skateboarders and the second-hand book stalls under Waterloo Bridge. Costs nothing and there is always something on.
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Tattershall Castle
Moderate
Embankment · Views
A pub on a moored paddle steamer with the London Eye lit up across the water. Ordinary pub prices for an extraordinary view. Grab a spot on the top deck when the weather holds.
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Top Secret Comedy Club
Cheap
Covent Garden · Culture
Proper stand-up in a basement off Drury Lane, and midweek tickets are about a pound. Laughing together does more for a first date than any tasting menu. Book ahead and go early for a decent seat.
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A self-guided Treasure Trail
Cheap
Marylebone · Outdoors
A printable clue trail that walks you round the backstreets for a few hours. About seven quid, and the puzzles give you something to talk about whenever the conversation dips. You end up down streets you would never have found.
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The Wallace Collection
Free
Marylebone · Culture
A free house-museum of armour, old masters and gilded everything, tucked in a Marylebone square. Plenty of odd things to point at when you run out of small talk, and a glass-roofed courtyard café for after.
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