How do young men meet friends in London?

[JacknDiane]

Is already involved in a team sports. But could do with more friends. How on earth do you go about this in London?
And this is a serious post, I'm really trying to help ds. Not at university, just working but its a wfh job and he isn't meeting workmates.

No family there either.

Join hobby groups on MeetUp - books, gaming, tech, walking, whatever.

Does he have any old school/uni friends he could go out with / meet their friends?

DS was introduced to a friend by a school friend and now they do pub quiz group together every week!

Does he have a partner/ is he dating? DS met his (lovely) girlfriend on a dating app and they 'merged' their friendship groups and have a lovely big social life now.

But it IS hard, and he has to put himself out there a bit!

How old is DS? What is he interested in? Where does he live in London?

I second Meetup hobby groups

But he has to make an effort and put himself out there.

How old is he? Has he got a local pub he can go and chat to people. Do their pub quiz? There’s a fb group called London Stayers group and they organise loads of meet up’s.

In the pub? Strike up a conversation about the football, go along to the quiz night or open mic night or folk night, join the darts team - look for pubs that run things he might be interested in.

DD is in London on her own and has made friends with Bumble BFF ( I think it’s that ) guessing it works for young men too

Parkrun ,either as a volunteer or a runner

What is the team sport? Im surprised that has not offered more opportunities. When I first moved to London post uni I knew nobody and joined the local rugby club which provided an instant social life that still exists 20 odd years later.

Hes not got a local pub he goes to and hes not much of a drinker. I mught suggest meet up apps, thanks

Change jobs to a hybrid one that has lots of young people working there.

The development where I live has a meet the neighbours night sponsored by the local pub every couple of months.

And a gazillion WhatsApp groups for sports, plants, dog walking etc where the younguns seem to plan casual get togethers.

It Does take effort and so many people are transient that friend groups don’t always last long.

Have a look at "empty chairs" which is a new thing

My ds has this a bit. The difficulty I find is that anything I suggest is automatically uncool. 😎😁 And somehow putting yourself out there in a group especially for people who have gone to the group because you’re all feeling lonely feels a bit awkward.

I feel there are much fewer opportunities to naturally come across other people. There’s so much working from home and shopping online and streaming online rather than the cinema or whatever. You don’t even get to talk to the ticket sales person at the tube station or the newspaper vendor or similar. And things tend to cost a bomb as well. Humans are sociable creatures but people have lost touch with that to an extent.

Yes exactly @tobee. I know if i suggested anything it probably wouldn't go down well. I think modern living is shit for younger people, especially renting a small room in London and wfh there. Where do you meet others your age, never mind get a social life? Ds is early 20s and moved down recently for work. But it just seems really hard to meet others. Plus of course the fact he pays at least half his wage on rent. It doesn't leave much for socialising.

Its a different world to the one I was 20something in.

DD goes to all the free things in London: art galleries, museums, £10 comedy, theatre and music gigs through seatfiller sites, parks..
There's a lot that's free and cheap.

Bumble the dating app has bff mode
tell people you are new in the city and want friends. They will introduce you to people.
run club if he is sporty.
coworking hubs are very sociable and full of similar people wanting to make friends

Just seen an account called pints of knowledge on TikTok. Looks really cool. Basically lectures in pubs!

We live in London and DS does open mics and gigs w his small band. He’s a very sociable and engaging young man of 22 so I could PM you details of his next gig if your DS would like to meet a few lads his age. I’d nudge DS to look out for him. It’s in central London but we live north of the river!
Cant guarantee instant bonding but they’re all nice young men (most graduated this year or last).

I don’t live in London so might be burning a bit naive. But if it’s a 100% work from home job, why doesn’t he move home to where his friends live? The money you’d save on rent should cover the cost for any monthly / quarterly trips in that might be necessary?

I've always found swing dancing to be a great way to meet new people (including my husband!) when I've moved to a new place, and London has a great scene with lots of younger people. Try https://www.swingpatrol.co.uk/classes/ for classes around London.

@Lentilcakes what a lovely offer.

@JacknDiane London now is much harder than when I was young - in general a lot of the organic ways people used to make friends in day to day life seem to have vanished. That’s why you really have to be deliberate and not too self-conscious about using the meet up apps, going along to organised social groups. Either just tell people you’re new to the city or if you’ve been there a while say that as it happens a lot of your friends moved away recently so you are looking for more friends, it’s a transient population so nobody will be surprised or judge your son!

Thank you @Lentilcakes, thats so kind of you. Let me sound out ds first and see if he is willing to try that.
All the other suggestions are appreciated too.

He should definitely change jobs, working from home just isn’t right for a young person.

@JacknDiane- no probs! Just message me if your DS is keen and we’ll go from there.

Tag Rugby
https://www.trytagrugby.com/?srsltid=AfmBOopDsQswLEEEVC6umLGMaWA8mVejfvx91QBkKsnLQCZp5C1Y1K8q

Mixed teams, single sex teams, all ages. I know you say your DS has a team sports activity already, but see if he'll go along to one of the Tag Rugby nights -