You can live in London for a decade and still not have anyone to call on a Tuesday. It’s the city’s oldest open secret: nine million people, an infinite scroll of things to do, and no one to do them with.
A 2026 Belonging Forum study found 35% of Londoners often feel lonely, against 28% nationally, with renters and young women hit hardest. ONS analysis shows 16–29 year olds are more than twice as likely to feel lonely often or always as the over-70s – the highest rate of any age group. And GLA-commissioned research puts the number of severely lonely Londoners at 700,000. The demographic supposedly most connected is the loneliest.
Part of it is structural. The third spaces that used to do this work for us have been quietly disappearing: community centres turned padel clubs, grassroots venues turned luxury flats, pubs shut at eleven because a new-build objected. The places you used to bump into people have been optimised into places you book, pay for, and leave.
Part of it is that the tools we’ve been handed are the wrong shape for the job. Dating apps taught a generation to socialise by swiping, and the logic bled outwards: friendship apps that gamify people into profiles, networking events where everyone’s quietly assessing your job title, group chats that hum along for years without anyone actually meeting.
There’s also the fatigue of trying. Making friends as an adult means repeated, unrewarded effort: the run club where nobody speaks, the class where you sit next to someone new every week, the party where the one person you know leaves at nine. Most Londoners have tried some version of this but are tired of trying.
Which is what makes Interest inc worth paying attention to. It’s a new membership community which sets out to curate a cafe table of 5 people for a ninety minute meet up, matched by shared interests. No dating, no networking, no public profiles, no swiping between tables every eight minutes.
Founded by Yaryna, who moved to London in 2021 and still struggles to find her circle, so essentially has the same issue and knows exactly what is missing for the social life. Yaryna built Interest inc after wanting a softer, more intentional alternative to the way people currently meet in big cities, it works by narrowing the variables rather than widening them. You choose your city and a format, then pick six to ten interests from a set list – books, art, photography, music, hiking, board games, food and cooking, technology, philosophy, travel. You’re seated with people who chose enough of the same things, in the same age range, speaking the same language.
The small-table format of five means it’s big enough that nobody’s stranded with someone they’ve nothing to say to, but small enough that everybody gets airtime. The size of a good dinner party rather than a bad mixer, and built for talkers and listeners.
It’s partnered with cafés rather than venues, keeping the whole thing low-stakes and low-cost. Membership in the UK runs £13.99 a month, £37.99 for three, or £69.95 for six. You pay for your own coffee. If a table clicks, there’s a ‘Meet Again’ option. If it doesn’t, you’ve lost ninety minutes and the price of a flat white. You can also dive into another group completely and continue to build connections.
There’s a nice bit of friction in how it opens cities, too: London goes live once 100 people from the city have signed up. The thing only exists if enough people admit they want it.
None of this dismantles the structural stuff. A coffee meetup doesn’t reopen a shuttered venue. But the answer to a city that’s made spontaneity expensive was never going to be more spontaneity. It was going to be someone doing the organising. Not a revolution. Just someone finally helping push us in the right direction.
KEY INFORMATION
Membership | £13.99 for 1 month · £37.99 for 3 months · £69.95 for 6 months
Format | Small groups (typically up to 5), at partner cafés, approx. 90 minutes
Cities | London, Birmingham, Manchester, Edinburgh + more (active once 100 sign-ups)
For more information | interestinc.io
