Valentine’s Day is a day that, given the opportunity, most would forget. So why not take your date by surprise and make this year more memorable than ever before? Step beyond the M&S meal-for-two mentality and surprise your date with an experience to run home and tell their friends about.
1. Draughts – the Board Game Café
If there’s one thing better than the look of anger and frustration on your girlfriend’s face as you smash her in a game of scrabble, it’s seeing it in a public space where everyone will know you’ve won. Now that’s what I call a healthy relationship. Draughts in Haggerston is a café with over 600 board games to choose from. It sells beers (yes, the name is a pun!), food and coffee, and it’s a great place to let your SO know who’s the master of the board.
2. Visit Peter Pan
Kensington Gardens is no secret but there’s a magical statue of Peter Pan that, when found, is a joy. Did you know that Peter Pan first appeared as a passing character in the book The Little White Bird in 1902? The chapters in which he appeared were so well received that J.M. Barrie republished them on their own under the title Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens. Keep that information in your back pocket – you’re welcome.
For an alternative stroll, visit Kyoto Gardens in Holland Park. Cleanse yourselves in the surroundings of London’s most absorbing Japanese Gardens.
3. Whittle Your Own Wooden Spoon
If you really want to be remembered, this is your ticket. Barn the Spoon is a small workshop nestled away in Hackney, allowing you to carve your very own wooden spoon. It sounds drab but it is a surprisingly splendid experience. Whittle your way into each other’s hearts by customising handmade spoons that will last you a lifetime.
This isn’t as random as it sounds, by the way. In Wales, it is customary for lovers to carve spoons for St. Dwynwen’s Day!
4. The Whistling Shop
This is a little speakeasy that – if you hadn’t heard it here first – you would never know it was there. Just around the corner from the bustling Queen of Hoxton, there’s a doorway that takes you back in time into a Victorian dive bar – complete with stiff but inventive liquors. If the cathartic name doesn’t already sell it, you will certainly be taken back by the list of perfumed gin cocktails.
5. Gelato!
In Chiswick, on Turnham Green Terrace, you’ll find Foubert’s, the best Italian ice cream place in London. It stays open real late, so skip desert at whatever restaurant you go to, and head here for a late night gelato and espresso instead.
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