» Free Date Ideas
Free Dates Abound in London
East End, West End, all around the town – free date ideas flourish throughout London. Feeling romantic with a less than ideal wallet or handbag? No worries. Places to go and sights to see for free can be found throughout this, the biggest city in the European Union.
Museums and art galleries are great places both to meet new people and to escort someone special. Most open their doors for extensive hours with no charge to the public. The British Museum is a must-see. Located in Bloomsbury, historic home of writer Virginia Woolf and her contemporaries, the museum houses such world treasures as the Rosetta Stone which helped unravel the mysteries of early hieroglyphics. You can also view other ancient treasures like the Parthenon Sculptures from the Golden Age of Greece and the interiors of Egyptian royal tombs. The British Museum’s Asian collections bring together some of the most extraordinary objects in the world.
The National Gallery in Trafalgar Square houses centuries of world famous European art. Before you go inside, you and your date can fan away the pigeons first and take in the sights at one of the best-known gathering places in the world. Afterward you can recount your shared experience in the shadow of the 44m Nelson’s Column. It was built in 1843 in honor of the famous and infamous Admiral Horatio Nelson, known for his exploits at sea as well as in the bed of Lady Hamilton. Also on the square sits the wonderful National Portrait Gallery. There you can view portraits of everyone from Shakespeare to Henry VIII to Margaret Thatcher and Mick Jagger.
Away from Trafalgar, on Cromwell Road, sits the stately yet friendly Victoria & Albert Museum. Fashion and the decorative arts get their due here. A visit to the V & A makes for a dreamy afternoon as you travel backwards in time.
Picnics in one of London’s magnificent parks are great free date ideas. Regent’s Park in the north with its Gardens of Queen Mary might be your top spot. Set east of St. John’s Wood and south of Primrose Hill, even its location sounds romantic. At its heart, you will find the rose garden that surrounds a small lake. Regent’s Park was designed by 18th Century designer John Nash and was meant to surround the palace of the prince regent. The palace never took form but the beautiful park still graces this section of London.
Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park in Central London may prove more your cup of tea. Londoners and visitors from everywhere flock here for walks, rowing, and horseback riding. Coming upon the statue of Peter Pan in the Gardens will delight you and your date. In a livelier mood? Then check out Speakers Corner at the northeastern point of Hyde Park near the Marble Arch. For more than 150 years, speakers have stepped up on their soapboxes to lecture on whatever matter looms of vital importance to them.
Wherever you go in London, free date ideas proliferate. Do not be shy. There is plenty to do, see, and there need be no money involved.