![\"I](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/SEI_296758683-9505.jpg\")
\n\t\tDating can be a dark, dark place (Picture: Metro\/ Alice Giddings)<\/p>\n
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\n\t\tDating can be a dark, dark place (Picture: Metro\/ Alice Giddings)<\/p>\n
As I sat in a sweaty basement in Soho<\/a>, I felt my faith in humanity slowly seeping out of my pores.<\/p>\n Curiosity had led me here, to a Thursday singles night<\/a>. A quiet rage bubbled up inside me that my friends and I had paid \u00a320 each to attend \u2014 a price we all agreed felt like a blatant rip off.<\/p>\n Now, I\u2019ve been in a relationship with my boyfriend for three years, but one of my best friends Florence<\/a> is single and I thought I\u2019d keep her company in her search for a decent guy.<\/p>\n However, what ensued wasn\u2019t a lighthearted fun evening of being her wing woman \u2014 it was a glimpse into how truly awful the dating<\/a> scene is for those who genuinely want to find a connection.<\/p>\n Face-to-face events have gained favour as singles have slowly lost faith in online-dating. Tinder<\/a> lost 400,000 users from 2024 to 2025, while Bumble dropped from 1.4 million users in 2023 to 1.1million in 2025, according to Ofcom<\/a>\u2019s annual Online Nations report.<\/p>\n And while Tinder is still the most popular app, it\u2019s female audience was largely responsible for this drop, down from 735,000 to 384,000 in a single year, with men outnumbering women three-to-one.<\/p>\n \t\t Women\u2019s online dating fatigue is reflected in the broader statistics, too. While 11% of UK adults visited an online dating site, they were disproportionately male (3.6 million a month) compared to the dwindling 1.7 million women.<\/p>\n It\u2019s perhaps why IRL dating company, Thursday, runs events in more than 180 cities, with it\u2019s slogan \u2018F*ck dating apps, I\u2019m better in-person\u2019.<\/p>\n Maybe, I just got unlucky with this event, but when we rocked up to the posh restaurant where it was being hosted, we were surprised to find people eating dinner. This wasn\u2019t the \u2018Perfect Pairings Wine<\/a> Mixer\u2019 we\u2019d been promised.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\tAsk Metro<\/p>\n Use AI to go deeper into the stories you care about \u2013 powered by Metro and trusted publications.<\/p>\n Instead a waitress pointed us to the dark, wet alleyway down the side of the building. There someone drew a star in sharpie on our wrist, as if we were entering a trashy university club, and sent us inside.<\/p>\n The heat was stifling \u2014 there were no windows and no aircon \u2014 but we pushed our way to the bar.<\/p>\n \u2018That\u2019ll be \u00a38\u2019 the bartender murmured, pushing a stingy glass of white towards me. My entire group had wrongly assumed that, for a cost of \u00a320, we\u2019d get a free glass of wine on arrival.<\/p>\n Instead, we were handed a flimsy red leaflet with some descriptions of wines that, if we wanted to try, we\u2019d have to pay for full price by the glass.<\/p>\n Feeling cheated, we turned to look at the fellow singles. It was at least 80% women, and of the men that were there, a solid portion were more than double our age.<\/p>\n Instantly, a man with white hair who looked about 20 years older than my father, came and leant close to my face. He began flirting and I briefly wondered how he couldn\u2019t see that propositioning a 26-year-old felt predatory. Or maybe, he didn\u2019t care.<\/p>\n He asked what I thought of the wine, and I said it would\u2019ve tasted better if it was free, given the cost of entry. With his face two inches from mine, he dubbed me \u2018aggressive\u2019, before continuing to flirt. So, I walked off.<\/p>\n I found myself increasingly perturbed by the fact this was what my single friend Florence was subjected to week-in-week-out. She\u2019s a catch \u2014 stunning, with curves I could only dream of, in a high-flying career with a law degree, oh and she\u2019s a home-owner \u2014 yet she\u2019s being propositioned by men with no social skills who should be dating someone her mother\u2019s age.<\/p>\n \t\t We took a seat after a while to rest our feet, until a lone man in a polo neck told us we should stand up if we wanted anyone to be interested in us.<\/p>\n And, while I found myself dismaying at being \u00a328 poorer and ogled by grandfathers, my single friends were relatively unphased.<\/p>\n Whichever way they turned in the dating world, they were subjected to the same miserable lack of etiquette and mismatched suitors. Florence had been to five Thursdays events in total, with sporadic success, turning to them after dating apps proved to be a dark place.<\/p>\n \u2018I had one guy message me on an app and say \u201cthe way you show your neck in your photos let me know you like to be choked\u201d,\u2019 she tells me.<\/p>\n She also had another man drop her a message saying: \u2018F**k, marry, kill \u2013 me, Trump, Hitler.\u2019<\/p>\n It doesn\u2019t scream potential boyfriend material. So, Florence figured she\u2019d skip the online chitchat and head to an IRL dating event. But as you can tell, things aren\u2019t always better face-to-face either.<\/p>\n At a previous Thursdays event one guy had tapped her on the shoulder asking her why she \u2018looked so moody\u2019. Little did he know another man had just told her women weren\u2019t grateful enough for their role as child bearers.<\/p>\n And yes, both asked her for her number. It sounds dystopian, but these interactions aren\u2019t isolated incidents, rather they make up the bleak fabric of the dating world. <\/p>\n I was so shocked, I asked Thursday if it\u2019s always like this and, to their credit they were extremely apologetic.<\/p>\n A spokesperson told Metro they manage ticket sales to keep an even split of men and women, and regularly \u2018adjust ticket availability on one side if they see the balance moving too far in one direction\u2019.<\/p>\n Unbeknownst to me, there are actually a couple of events with an upper age limit of around 35 or 45, so I\u2019ll definitely be opting for that next time, although most events have no upper age limit.<\/p>\n \u2018We want our events to be inclusive, but equally we completely understand that a significant age imbalance can change the experience of the night,\u2019 the spokesperson added. \u2018Ticket prices also vary depending on the event, city, venue and what is included.\u2019<\/p>\n That being said, even the guys our age haven\u2019t treated Florence much better.<\/p>\n So reach out to your single friends and maybe buy them a drink, because if they\u2019re trying to date, trust me, they\u2019re being put through the wringer.<\/p>\n Do you have a story you\u2019d like to share? Get in touch by emailing MetroLifestyleTeam@metro.co.uk<\/p>\n Arrow Arrow Arrow![\"Stylish](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/SEI_308305330-e0eb.jpg\")
\n\t\tIt wasn\u2019t the high brow wine mixer we\u2019d envisioned (Picture: Getty Images)<\/p>\n![\"Two](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/SEI_308305275-af1a.jpg\")
\n\t\tOnline dating led my friend to try singles nights, but it\u2019s not been much better (Picture: Getty Images)<\/p>\n
\nMORE: My boyfriend is a \u2018sex maniac\u2019 \u2013 how do I tell him I\u2019m totally exhausted?<\/a><\/p>\n
\nMORE: My wife died five years after we married \u2014 I was just 25 when I became a widower<\/a><\/p>\n
\nMORE: The date was already a disaster \u2013 then he brought out the tomato<\/a><\/p>\n