Violet Cakes
47 Wilton Way, Dalston, E8 3ED

They say the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, and we can attest similarly that the way to a woman’s seems more and more likely to involve cupcakes. This little cake shop nestled behind London Fields, uses organic, locally sourced ingredients (wherever possible) and has become a neighbourhood institution after setting up a tremendously popular stall at Broadway Market back in 2005. Did we say that almost everything they make tastes amazing? Well it does..!

We think the best way to impress someone you like, is to get them a little something from Violet Cakes, everything comes in a beautiful little box and hey, you can’t eat the flowers you give to someone can you?!
 
If you’re looking to meet someone special for a date, or a cupcake, and want to sign up to London’s best free dating site, then look further than DatesOut. You can create your free profile right here to get started!

Aubin Cinema
Situated in the basement of the Aubin building, the cinema is as good a place as any to bring your date along, because there’s something not quite right about bringing that girl (or guy) you like to the Odeon. Drinks beforehand at the Vintage Emporium will set the scene.

Arcola Theatre
Looking for something to do round Dalston before the bars open? Arcola theatre is a great place to bring someone for a date. This intimate space is home to some of the brightest young playwrights in the country, a stepping-stone on their way to the bright lights of the West End as it were. Drinks round the corner at the Shacklewell Arms is pretty much compulsory.

Columbia Road Flower Market
A perennial favourite (a ha), and filled with a curious mix of early-morning clubbers (bars open at 6am for the market traders), locals and members of the blue-rinse brigade who’ve bussed in from Bishops Stortford. It’s not called London’s best market for nothing.

Vyner Street
If you missed first Thursday’s, that’s a shame, you’ll have to bring your own wine along for this event. This unassuming alley is the spiritual home of the East London art scene. The star of the street has to be Wilkinson gallery, a purpose-built world-class gallery space, closely followed by Nettie Horn.

Broadway Market
This place keeps on getting better, and is pretty much the thing to do on a Saturday in the area. If the sun’s out you can make a day of it, and the street is being repaved with trees as we speak. About time, although not sure about the planned Boris bike stand, although am sure we’ll get used to it. Pick up some sandwiches from E5 Bakehouse round the corner, seriously.

If you’re looking to meet someone special for a date, or some film-noir at a local art-house cinema, and want to sign up to London’s best free dating site, then look further than DatesOut. You can create your free profile right here to get started!

Christian Louboutin Exhibition @ The Design Museum
Until 9 July..

The Design Museum presents iconic French shoe designer Christian Louboutin, celebrating a career which has pushed the boundaries of high fashion shoe design. This exhibition celebrates Louboutin’s career showcasing twenty years of designs and inspiration, revealing the artistry and theatricality of his shoe design from stilettos to lace-up boots, studded sneakers and bejewelled pumps.

Be taken on a magical journey of style, glamour, power, femininity and elegance. You have to be inhuman not to appreciate the clean lines and simple aesthetics of a nice pair of Louboutin’s, and as the ideal destination for a fashion date, the only place you can go wrong is in the gift shop afterwards. Leave your credit card at home!

 
If you’re looking to meet someone special for a date, or some shoe-shopping, and want to sign up to London’s best free dating site, then look further than DatesOut. You can create your free profile right here to get started

Museums at Night London
May 18 – May 20

Museums at night is returning again this year, providing the time-poor and irregular museum attendee an opportunity to see London’s traditional tourist haunts devoid of their usual camera-toting Japanese housewives and Americans with bulging fannypacks.

It’s also the perfect opportunity to bring someone along for a date, because a) it’s a special event, b) it’s a nighttime thing and c) asking someone to the Tate on a regular Saturday afternoon shows little to no prior thought. There’s literally hundred of galleries and museums open late over the weekend. Whoever thought you could do an all-nighter and emerge not only older but wiser?

There’s a myriad of events on, 37 pages in all, so follow the above link and get planning for something a little different.

 
If you’re looking to meet someone special for a date, or a nighttime waltz through the foyer of the V&A, and want to sign up to London’s best free dating site, then look further than DatesOut. You can create your free profile right here to get started

Feel like getting up early to watch the London Marathon this Sunday? No? Well we can sympathise with your apathy, there is after all a full-house of rain forecast for the next 7 days. Even if you’ve been out all night, happen to be in the area and chance upon the race, we can not think of a more fearsome juxtaposition as your hungover self struggles to focus on the fittest people in the world hammering the pavements in time with your thumping head.

However should you be the marathon-watching type, we salute you and provide you with the following vantage points – along with a great place to grab some food nearby..
 
EMBANKMENT
This is where you want to be really, as it’s got the finishing line which is the important bit, or at the very least, you want to be on the approach to the finish so you can see the action intensify. Lobby Lounge at the Corinthia is the best bet for food and a stellar choice to take your date.
 
SHADWELL
After living in Shadwell, we can’t say it’s a place we’d ordinarily recommend as a backdrop to a budding relationship. But when the marathon’s in town, it don’t matter, for on ‘The Highway’ (not a script made for Val Kilmer but the name of the road you want to be on) you get the rare opportunity to see the runners’ double back upon themselves. Have a celebratory drink afterwards at the Captain Kidd in Wapping.
 
If you’re looking to meet someone special for a date, or someone to run a half with, and want to sign up to London’s best free dating site, then look further than DatesOut. You can create your free profile right here to get started!

Netil House Prospect Bar

Netil House is a converted 50,000 square foot warehouse sandwiched between London Fields and Broadway Market in E8, providing studio space to fashion labels, club nights, yoga classes, graphic designers, video production companies, and um acrobats. But that need not concern you. What you should find interesting, is the super cool bar hidden away on the 2nd floor where you can be surrounded by palm trees, vintage furniture, family portraits of the Maharajas plus have access to one of the best terrace bars in London.

This is a great place to bring someone special that you’re looking to impress with your intimate knowledge of what’s on around town. And one more thing, the uppermost roof terrace opens early May and the views across London have to be seen to be believed. Watch this space..

 
If you’re looking to meet someone special for a date, or someone to sit on a roof terrace with, and want to sign up to London’s best free dating site, then look further than DatesOut. You can create your free profile right here to get started!

The Faberge Big Easter Egg Hunt

The Big Egg Hunt was a plan hatched by charity for a record-breaking egg hunt across central London to raise money for good causes. Well they say central London, what they actually mean is all the well-heeled parts, think Mayfair, Knightsbridge etc. This means that you can use it as a romantic, feel-good day out to traipse around some of the more aesthetically pleasing bits of our city with your date.

Over 200 individual eggs, created by leading artists, designers, architects and jewellers, are currently tucked away in various corners of the capital this Easter (don’t fret, you’ll know when you see one, they’re on plinths so you don’t need to go ferreting behind the bins). When you do find one, text in its code and you’ll go into the draw to win a £100k Faberge egg. Not bad huh? That’s your future anniversary gift sorted out.

The eggs are already being auctioned off for charity and are fetching some pretty incredible prices – £50k each is not an uncommon figure on the Sotheby’s auction site – Christ!

 
If you’re looking to meet someone special for a date, or someone to go egg huntin with, and want to sign up to London’s best free dating site, then look further than DatesOut. You can create your free profile right here to get started!

Forman & Sons
Stour Road, Fish Island, Hackney Wick, E3 2NT

For those of you still able to remember, this place is kind of like Bistrotheque before First Thursday’s put Vyner Street and the surrounding environs on the map. You think you’ve made a courageous journey into the unknown (well it is Hackney Wick) and lo and behold the restaurant’s packed with coiffed hair and designer heels gazing at the finest view of the Olympic Stadium you’re likely to see outside of the TV screen in 2 months time.

H Forman & Sons are primarily known as the smoked salmon ‘go-to guys’ for discerning chefs worldwide, and their premises are borrowed for the Masterchef series that your grandparents watch. Alongside an art gallery upstairs and a space outside that’s been earmarked as the Henman Hill of the Olympics with the largest TV screen in Europe, if you don’t know about this place yet, you soon will.

All in all, the restaurant here is a perfect place to bring someone for a date. Afterwards you can head over the bridge to the Olympic site proper and check out the only resident that’s refused to have his house bulldozed, it’s rather surreal actually, the maisonette looks like the box office except there’s a dog and children’s toys on the lawn..

 
If you’re looking to meet someone special for a date, or someone to cruise down a canal with, and want to sign up to London’s best free dating site, then look further than DatesOut. You can create your free profile right here to get started!

Riverside Studios
Crisp Road, Hammersmith , W6 9RL

Riverside Studios is an arts and media centre on the banks of the Thames in Hammersmith, comprising two main performance studios, a cinema, a TV studio and production galleries, numerous offices, a Restaurant and Bar, a Film Cafe and most importantly a River Terrace.
 
The Ship
10 Thames Bank, Ship Lane, SW14 7QR

This beautiful old Victorian pub has a killer view, and a monopoly over the finishing line, unless of course you’ve gone to the trouble to get official tickets. It’s a bit of a walk from the usual riverside venues, but definitely worth the trouble.
 
The Dove
19 Upper Mall, W6 9TA

Yes this place has that authentic Dickensian old-London thing going on, but that’s not why you’re here. Head outside past the vine-entangled conservatory to the expansive lawn outside and grab a spot. Probably the earlier the better here.

 
If you’re looking to meet someone special for a date, or someone in the Henley set, and want to sign up to London’s best free dating site, then look further than DatesOut. You can create your free profile right here to get started

The Three Kings
7 Clerkenwell Close, EC1R 0DY

This suitably bizarre date-location is not like any other typical London pub you may chance across on a rainy day. Firstly and most importantly, it has a fire. Secondly, the name the Three Kings alludes to, and we’re telling the truth here, Elvis, King Kong and Henry VIII. Thirdly, the walls of the pub are populated with papier-mâché animal heads, baseball accoutrement and fairy lights. Fourthly, the bar staff must be the finest in EC1R, providing table-side service with what has been described as an exemplary real ale selection. If you’re into that. If not, there’s a private upstairs area with an old vinyl jukebox you can play to your heart’s content. All in all, the perfect cosy spot to hang around with someone until Spring starts proper..

 
If you’re looking to meet someone special for a date, or someone to appreciate papier-mâché animal heads with, and want to sign up to London’s best free dating site, then look further than DatesOut. You can create your free profile right here to get started!