Autumn date ideas in London: 2019 edition

Drink up here: wine tasting

Wine lovers? Book yourselves onto one of Vignette Wine’s sensory experiences (the next is on 4 September and costs £45pp), which aim to take guests on a journey through their palate – and their mind. In the cosy setting of Tap & Bottle in Flat Iron Square, you’ll taste a series of wines, each designed to challenge your perceptions in a lighthearted and playful way. Not for those who want to gaze into each other’s eyes all night, mind, the experience will see you seated around a large table of 15 or so guests, together with whom you'll discuss the wines you try, picking at your own personal cheese board as you do.

After a wine-fuelled date that’s a little more intimate? Impress your date by booking one of the first tables at Lockett’s Wine Bar, the new offering from the team behind Stalwart restaurant Wiltons. The 60-seater venue – opening this autumn – is housed in the Grade II-listed Smithson Plaza, and is expected to be the luxe place to swirl and sip this season.

Pick your own pumpkins then carve them here: Garsons / Drink, Shop & Do

While pick-your-own farms have been around since, well, forever, they’ve seen a spike in popularity since our recent sustainability awakening. For a date that shows you’re fully in support of the zeitgeist, why not escape the city for the day and head to a pumpkin patch? Garsons is our top pick. Just a 25-minute drive from Putney or Wimbledon, the 155-acre site boasts a farm shop too, so you can enjoy some farm-to-fork dining while you’re there.

Meanwhile, those with a steady hand and a penchant for dates wrapped up in an activity should head next to Drink, Shop & Do, where pumpkin carving sessions are likely to be held almost daily in the last two weeks of October. Show off your creative skills before taking home your ghoulified orange orb as a keepsake from the night. Never ones to shirk on the tipples, each ticket includes a glass of bubbly (sure to loosen tongues) and all materials are provided.

Satisfy your sweet teeth here: Melt chocolatiers

Chocolate doesn’t have to be belittled to the ranks of a final, naughty mouthful of something indulgent post dinner. If you and your date are sweet-crossed lovers, it can be the main event. Such is the case at Melt chocolatiers in Notting Hill, where guests can learn how to make the perfect bonbon, brownie or sea salted praline.

If that sounds too wet behind the ears for you, make the experience more exciting by booking onto one of Melt’s blindfold chocolate tasting nights.

Hone your creative skills here: whittling workshop with the Green Wood Guild

If you and your date are down-to-earth types always looking for ways to go back to basics and live simpler lives (without relinquishing your modern-day comforts, of course), then why not head to Stepney City Farm for a whittling workshop? Classes last two hours, cost £48 per person, and consist of a lesson in knife carving followed by a chance to make your own spatula of choice. If you’re still on friendly terms by the end of the session, why not take your new utensil home and use it to cook something together?

Play house here: Open House London

Whether you’re a pair of design buffs or simply like to fantasise about living a little more grandly from time to time, Open House London could prove a fun backdrop for a date this autumn. The free, two-day event (on 21 and 22 September this year) is a chance to peek behind the city’s most exclusive doorways and wander around secret spaces rarely open to the public.

There’s over 800 buildings to explore in total and something in every borough, too, so there’s no need to travel far to make the most of it. The 2019 line-up is yet to be announced, but with 10 Downing Street and Lancaster House among the buildings that went on show last year, you can expect to be impressed.

Live the high life here: The Wolf of Wall Street immersive experience

Immersive theatre is a bit like Marmite: you either love it or you hate it. If you’re in the former category and can’t get enough of solving riddles and being confronted by a ream of wacky characters as you wander through rooms, that’s great! We’re with you! But it’s worth checking your partner is on the same page before booking them in for a night of what might be their idea of touchy-feely hell on earth.

For the purpose of this recommendation, though, we’ll assume you’re both big fans. And it’s good news, because a new immersive experience based on The Wolf of Wall Street opens in London this September. The story, made famous by Martin Scorcese's 2013 film starring Leonardo DiCaprio in the titular role, is based on the real life adventures and misdemeanors of stockbroker Jordan Belfort. The immersive experience, a collaboration between Stratton Oakmont Productions and director Alexander Wright, is a chance to roam around Belfort’s hedonistic world of money, drugs and sex. In short, this is A-class entertainment.

Dine here: Nutshell

To impress a foodie on a date this autumn, you can do no better than booking a table at Nutshell, the new Covent Garden outpost from ex-Palomar chef Jeremy Borrow. In a contemporary kitsch setting designed by B3 (the firm that decked out Lyle’s), you can expect to dine on comforting-yet-exotic Iranian dishes such as the Joosh Pareh (beef dumplings, sour cherry, chickpea), sip Irani twists on classic cocktails (such as the Persian bubbles: limoo infused cognac, champagne), and revel in your plant-draped, velvet-chaired surroundings.

Planning a brunch date? Do away with the standard egg and smashed avo offering, and instead look to the all-new brunch at Ollie Dabbous’s Michelin-starred Hide: a three-course affair complete with wine pairings. With an elegant, sculptural oak staircase forming the centrepiece of the restaurant, there’s a sense that the outside has been brought in, while the bronzed interiors lend Hide a distinctly autumnal feel. With both Green Park and Hyde Park a stone’s throw away, why not follow brunch with some fresh air in the real outdoors?

Question your senses here: Bridget Riley exhibition

Both in real life and Hollywood films, art exhibitions are a popular location for a date. It’s easy to see why: wandering around a gallery is far less intense than staring into a stranger’s eyes over a drink. Plus, the art gives you something to talk about beyond yourselves.

Rather than plunging headfirst into the permanent collection at your nearest gallery, it pays to do you research and perhaps find something you’ll both enjoy that’s a little out of the ordinary. Our top pick this season is the Bridget Riley exhibition at the Hayward Gallery. Riley’s work is known for its ‘vibrating abstractions, psychedelic surfaces, and graphic patterns’. Explore the exhibition and see if you succumb to the disorienting visual experiences her work is known to produce.

Give into your emotions here: Orpheus in the Underworld

Planning a more highbrow date? See one of the most famed (and ill-fated) love stories of all time performed as an opera. Directors Emma Rice and Tom Morris have joined forces with Offenbach and the ENO to collaborate on a production of Orpheus in the Underworld – one of four operatic retellings of the Orpheus myth on this season. This is opera but not as you know it: expect sizzling music, boisterous humour and plenty of colour.

Feel fresh here: Hampstead Heath or Richmond Park

In terms of down-to-earth dates, few things beat going for a walk in the crisp autumn air, with a carpet of red, gold and yellow leaves crunching beneath your feet. The best places for long autumn walks in London lie to the north and south of the city; specifically, Hampstead Heath and Richmond Park.

The rugged, rolling hills of Hampstead Heath are a blissful escape from dizzying city for those living north of the river. Nearby Hampstead village is almost overrun with cosy cafés to enjoy a well-earned mug of something warm following your walk, while the Holly Bush pub with its open fire, stripped wooden floors and hearty roasts will have you and your date rosy-cheeked imminently. Meanwhile picturesque Richmond in southwest London boasts views of the river and deer alike. The Lass O’Richmond Hill is a traditional, homely pub to snuggle up in after a walk. Or, if you strike it lucky with the weather on your date, head out onto the terrace to enjoy a drink in the sun.